Department for Transport

Bus Services

Mr Stephen Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of local bus services in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East, and (d) the UK since 2010.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: The bus market in England outside London is deregulated and decisions regarding service provision are primarily a matter for bus operators, although local authorities do support socially necessary routes that are not commercially viable.  The Bus Services Act 2017 provides the tools local authorities need to improve local bus services. We are working with local authorities to determine which of the powers provided are best able to support bus networks in their areas.

Shipping

Nigel Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment the Government has made of the effectiveness of the National Maritime Single Window pilot exercise.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: The Department is continuing to review stakeholder feedback to the UK’s National Maritime Single Window pilot exercise in conjunction with our Government partners. We are making further upgrades to the system to improve usability and access to data by the appropriate authorities as a result.

Cycling and Walking

Jim Fitzpatrick: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans to publish the next annual update of the Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy, and if he will make a statement.

Jesse Norman: An error has been identified in the written answer given on 06 March 2018.The correct answer should have been:

The Government will report regularly to Parliament on the progress it is making in delivering the Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy, as required by section 21 of the Infrastructure Act 2015. A decision on the timing of the first such progress report will be made in due course.

Jesse Norman: The Government will report regularly to Parliament on the progress it is making in delivering the Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy, as required by section 21 of the Infrastructure Act 2015. A decision on the timing of the first such progress report will be made in due course.

Cycling and Walking

Jim Fitzpatrick: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the health effects of achieving the aims of the Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy; and if he will make a statement.

Jesse Norman: The Department has not made a detailed assessment of this matter. The health benefits of cycling and walking are considerable and the Department is working closely with the Department for Health and Social Care and Public Health England on the delivery of the £1.2 billion Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy.

Network Rail: Property

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 27 February 2018 to Question 128316, on Network Rail: Property, what the (a) proceeds and (b) costs were in each of those years.

Joseph Johnson: The proceeds and costs for property sales are set out below:  201720162015Gross proceeds£111m£99m£40mCosts(£20m)(£24m)(£7m)Net proceeds£91m£75m£33m

East Anglia Railway Line

Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if his Department will discuss with (a) HM Treasury, (b) the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, (c) the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and (d) other key stakeholders steps to establish the funding necessary to the deliver the key strategic rail infrastructure improvements identified by the Great Eastern Main Line Rail Task Force.

Joseph Johnson: The Department is developing a new approach to rail enhancements, building on the process set out in the “Memorandum of Understanding between Department for Transport and Network Rail on Rail Enhancements,” which will be set out shortly. This approach will take the form of a pipeline, and will focus on ensuring investment which best addresses the needs of passengers and freight, and that funding commitments appropriately reflect the stage of development of enhancements. The improvements identified by the Great Eastern Main Line Rail Task Force will be taken forward under this approach. They have not yet progressed to a decision to deliver, so we cannot confirm funding for their delivery at this time. If the Task Force is able to identify alternative sources of funding, the Department may be able to progress the schemes further through the pipeline.

Roads: Cornwall

Scott Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how funding has been allocated by his Department for repairing potholes in (a) North Cornwall, and (b) Cornwall.

Jesse Norman: The Department for Transport is providing over £6 billion capital funding to local highway authorities in England, outside London, for local highways maintenance between 2015/16 and 2020/21. This includes £296 million through the pothole action fund. The funding allocated by the Department to Cornwall Council for highways maintenance and repairing potholes is set out in the following table. It is for Cornwall Council to determine how much of the funding they use in North Cornwall. In addition, for financial years 2017/18 and 2018/19 the allocations in the table are notional as Cornwall Council are taking part in a Business Rate Retention trial.TableFunding Stream £m2015/162016/172017/182018/192019/202020/21TotalLocal Highways Maintenance Block (Needs Element)22.68520.79620.16718.25418.25418.254118.410Local Highways Maintenance Block (Incentive Element) 1.2711.8883.8023.8023.80214.565Pothole Action Fund 1.2673.143   4.410Local Highways Maintenance Challenge Fund5.220 5.000   10.220National Productivity Investment Fund (NPIF)  3.946   3.946Total27.90523.33434.14422.05622.05622.056151.551

Trains: Repairs and Maintenance

Tonia Antoniazzi: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the number of breakdowns which have affected bi-mode trains since their introduction in October 2017.

Joseph Johnson: As we said in a previous answer of 20 February 2018, UIN 126979, there is no accepted rail industry definition of ‘broken down’, and train-related incidents may be for a variety of reasons and durations together with a variety of journey implications. We are therefore unable to state how many ‘breakdowns’ have affected bi-mode trains since their introduction.

Railways

Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what funding his Department provides for (a) feasibility studies for rail enhancement projects and (b) rail enhancement projects outside of the parish covered by the Statement of Available Funds for Control Period 6; and what the application process is for that funding.

Joseph Johnson: In the current investment period, Control Period 5 (CP5: 2014-2019) we are investing around £15bn on enhancements – including feasibility studies and individual projects. Within the parish of the Statement of Funds Available (SoFA) for Control Period 6 (CP6: 2019-2024), funding is included to continue to take forward enhancements that now span CP5 and CP6. The SoFA also makes provision for funding for early-stage development of enhancement schemes. Any other rail enhancements in CP6 will need to be assessed using a new process for enhancements, building on the principles set out in the ‘Memorandum of Understanding between Department for Transport and Network Rail on rail enhancements’ in 2016. We’ll set out more information on this new process shortly.

West Coast Railway Line

John Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate his Department has made of the cost per mile of installing WiFi and mobile phone connectivity on the West Coast Main Line.

Joseph Johnson: We do not publish information on the costs of franchise requirements.

Bus Services: Concessions

Sue Hayman: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits extending the eligibility for the older person's bus pass to 60 year olds in England.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: There have been no assessments on extending the statutory scheme for older person’s bus passes to all 60-year olds in England. Government is committed to retaining the current benefit which means ensuring its financial sustainability. The process of equalising the difference in the age of eligibility between men and women will go some way to support this. However, local authorities have powers to provide enhancements to the statutory scheme should they wish to put these in place based on their assessments of local funding priorities and resources.

Railways: Sussex

Lloyd Russell-Moyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the timetable is for the extension of the 26-30 railcard to people living in Sussex.

Joseph Johnson: The 26-30 railcard is currently undergoing a trial period in the Greater Anglia area to assess the commercial viability of a national rollout. Rail Delivery Group (RDG) are overseeing this trial and the railcard’s implementation.Further information will be announced in due course.

Parking: Pedestrian Areas

Dr David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to restrict parking on pavements to remove potential obstructions for the visually impaired.

Jesse Norman: The Government has no current plans to bring forward legislation on the matter of pavement parking. Local authorities in England outside London already have powers to restrict pavement parking using Traffic Regulation Orders.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Trade Unions

Laura Pidcock: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if the Government will take steps to encourage increased trades union membership.

Andrew Griffiths: Trade union membership is a matter for trade unions themselves.

Energy: EU Grants and Loans

Nigel Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of guaranteeing funding for UK Projects of Common Interest established under the Connecting Europe Facility for Energy.

Claire Perry: The Government guarantee to underwrite the payment of Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) energy grant awards is intended to apply where UK project promoters have been accorded ‘Project of Common Interest’ (PCI) status for their projects under provisions in the Trans-European Networks Energy (TEN-E) regulation, have subsequently applied for and been awarded grants under the linked CEF regulation, but where no satisfactory arrangement has been made on exit as to how to manage outstanding awards. This approach mitigates the risk that these projects do not go ahead because of lack of funding. The majority of the projects in receipt of awards so far are joint electricity interconnector projects with other Member States and will contribute significantly to the UK’s future security of electricity supply.

Energy: Prices

Tonia Antoniazzi: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the proposed energy price cap will extend to people who use (a) heating oil, (b) liquefied petroleum gas and (c) solid fuels.

Claire Perry: Ofgem’s regulatory powers extend only to gas and electricity. The proposals in the Domestic Gas and Electricity (Tariff Cap) Bill only apply to the implementation of a cap on standard variable and default tariffs for gas and electricity customers.There is an open market for the supply of heating oil and solid fuels, so customers can shop around for the best deal before delivery. Domestic liquefied petroleum gas customers are protected by the Competition Markets Authority’s LPG Orders, which are designed to make switching supplier easier.

Business: Ethics

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps the Government is taking encourage businesses to adopt (a) ethical business practices and (b) policies that protect workers from being abused and exploited in (i) the organisations and (ii) the global supply chains of such businesses.

Andrew Griffiths: The Government expects businesses to behave ethically as part of their social and environmental responsibility, and we encourage responsible business practices across policies and legislation. The welfare of workers is addressed in employment provisions such as the National Minimum and Living Wages, health and safety in the workplace, and regulation of employment agencies; whilst the Government’s Good Work Plan responded to the Matthew Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices to focus on improving the quality of jobs. The Government’s national action on business and human rights responds to the UN’s Guiding Principles, and it includes steps to address human rights implications of UK business activities both at home and overseas. As a result of the world-leading provisions in the Modern Slavery Act 2015, thousands of businesses have published transparency statements detailing how they are tackling modern slavery in their business and supply chains. The Government has also launched the ‘Business Against Slavery Forum’ which aims to establish a new partnership between Government and business to accelerate progress in tackling modern slavery and help smaller businesses to take action.

Energy: Meters

Adam Afriyie: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that smart meters are on schedule to be installed in every household by 2020.

Claire Perry: The Government is committed to ensuring that all homes and small businesses are offered smart meters by the end of 2020. The Programme is well underway with around 400,000 being installed every month.There are now over 8.6 million smart and advanced meters operating across homes and businesses across Great Britain. The rollout of smart meters is on track to deliver significant benefits, including putting an end to estimated bills, and is set to save consumers £300m in 2020 alone. Energy suppliers are responsible for planning and delivering the roll-out of smart meters, working within the legal framework established by the Government. Energy suppliers’ licence conditions require them to take ‘all reasonable steps’ to roll-out smart meters to all their domestic and small business customers by 31 December 2020. Ofgem is responsible for regulating energy suppliers against this obligation.

Data Processing

Adam Afriyie: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make an estimate of the potential contribution of machine learning to UK GDP by 2020.

Mr Sam Gyimah: Machine Learning is a significant technology within Artificial Intelligence (AI) more broadly.One estimate published by PWC in 2017 proposed that AI could add £232bn to the UK economy by 2030 [1]. Analysis by Accenture predicts that AI alone could add an Additional £630bn to the economy by 2035 increasing the annual growth rate of GVA from 2.5 to 3.9% [2].The Industrial Strategy sets Grand Challenges to put the UK in the vanguard of the industries of the future, ensuring that the UK takes advantage of major global changes, improving people’s lives and the country’s productivity. First among these is the AI and Data-driven Economy Grand Challenge.[1]https://www.pwc.co.uk/press-room/press-releases/artificial-intelligence-could-add-232bn-to-UK-gdp.html[2] https://newsroom.accenture.com/subjects/technology/artificial-intelligence-poised-to-double-annual-economic-growth-rate-in-12-developed-economies-and-boost-labor-productivity-by-up-to-40-percent-by-2035-according-to-new-research-by-accenture.htm

Graphene

Adam Afriyie: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make an assessment of the potential contribution of graphene to UK GDP by 2020.

Mr Sam Gyimah: At this point in the lifecycle of such an emergent technology, we cannot make reliable estimates of graphene’s near-term contribution to UK GDP. There is a long lead-in time for new materials to be embedded in technologies, and the case of graphene is no exception. Graphene is increasingly gaining traction across the world. One report has estimated that the global graphene-based products market will grow to $2.1 billion by 2025, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 46.3%.[1] Over 140 companies in the UK have been active in graphene in the UK. The Government is playing an active role to support the development and exploitation of graphene – including through the projects funded by Innovate UK and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), with universities, and suppliers and end users of graphene, and the foundation of the National Graphene Institute (NGI) and the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC). [1] Graphene: Technologies, Applications and Markets, BCC Research, 2016

Small Businesses: Billing

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate his Department has made of the level of debt accrued by SMEs as a result of late payments.

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the number of businesses that have been wound up as a result of late payments in each of the last five years.

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate the his Department has made of the number of SMEs that have been forced to take legal action to recover late payments in each of the last five years.

Andrew Griffiths: The Department has made no such estimate.

Energy: Billing

Lee Rowley: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps the Government is taking to encourage energy companies to improve the accessibility and clarity of energy bills and statements to help customers better understand their charges.

Claire Perry: Ofgem, as the energy regulator, are responsible for deciding what information suppliers have to provide on energy bills. Too much detailed information on energy bills is not always an effective way to engage with consumers who can find this too complex or confusing. Ofgem are therefore introducing a principles based approach which allows bills to be simplified, with information made available elsewhere in a way which works for consumers. This approach recognises the different preferences consumers have for how they receive information, and balances protection for consumers with greater room for flexibility and innovation in the future. Ofgem are also conducting trials, the first of which concluded in autumn last year, to uncover what works in engaging consumers, without irritating them. These trails will be scaled up and rolled out nationally if successful.

Energy: Meters

Lee Rowley: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment the Government has made of the reliability and accuracy of smart meter energy readings.

Claire Perry: Smart meters installed in Great Britain must comply with the relevant legislation on measurement at the time of installation, which are the Measuring Instruments (Active Electrical Energy Meters) Regulations and the Measuring Instruments (Gas Meters) Regulations. The Office for Product Safety & Standards (OPS&S) regularly monitors the accuracy of meter populations through the in-service testing (IST) scheme to ensure they continue to perform to an acceptable level. IST therefore forms an important part of consumer protection by ensuring only meters that operate within the prescribed limits of accuracy are used for consumer billing. Further information is available online: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/in-service-testing-for-gas-and-electricity-meters

Energy: UK Trade with EU

Gill Furniss: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the effect of a disruption in the EU internal energy market on the price of electricity for energy-intensive​ industries such as the steel sector.

Claire Perry: The Government is currently considering all aspects of its future relationship with the EU, including in energy. Maintaining affordable energy supplies for both the UK and the EU is a key objective of the future partnership that the UK is seeking with the EU.The Government is undertaking a wide range of analysis looking at the implications of UK withdrawal from the EU, examining all areas of the UK economy and seeking input from a wide range of stakeholders. Ministers have a specific responsibility, which Parliament has endorsed, not to release information that would undermine our negotiating position.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Iraq: Aviation

Fabian Hamilton: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to the Government of the Republic of Iraq on the opening to international passenger flights of the two airports in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq; and if he will make a statement.

Alistair Burt: ​We are urging the Government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government to resolve their differences at every opportunity. Officials at our Posts in Iraq are pressing this message, as are UK ministers. The Foreign Secretary spoke to Prime Minister Abadi on 6 February and emphasised the need for an agreement on the management of border security, thereby enabling international flights into the Kurdistan Region to re-start. The Prime Minister also raised this issue during her visit to Iraq in November 2017, as i did in my conversation with Prime Minister Abadi on 17th February.

EU Countries: British Nationals Abroad

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make it his policy that UK embassies in EU 27 countries collect information British citizens living within those countries to ensure that information on the UK leaving the EU can be provided to those people.

Harriett Baldwin: The Foreign & Commonwealth Office is committed to ensuring that clear and accessible information is available for UK nationals living, working and travelling overseas, including in the EU. Our Embassies engage regularly with British citizens living in their host Member States. Particularly since the EU Referendum, we have been reaching out to UK nationals in the EU at frequent meetings, events and online. We are encouraging UK nationals to follow the ‘UK nationals in the EU’ page on www.gov.uk and to follow Embassy social media channels for the latest information on the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. We are also planning for a further EU-wide public communications campaign for UK nationals in the EU when the practical implications of the Withdrawal Agreement have been finalised.

EU Countries: British Nationals Abroad

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what plans he has put in place to ensure that UK embassies in EU 27 countries provide adequate assistance to British citizens during the process of the UK leaving the EU; and whether he plans to allocate additional resources to those embassies for that purpose.

Harriett Baldwin: We regularly review our overseas presence to ensure that we are well positioned to deliver the Government's objectives overseas, including providing assistance to British nationals.

British Nationals Abroad: Voting Rights

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether UK embassies in EU 27 countries are making preparations to engage with British citizens overseas in the event that the Overseas Electors Bill is passed into law.

Sir Alan Duncan: ​The Foreign and Commonwealth Office stands ready to support the Electoral Commission in their statutory duty to promote electoral registration among British citizens overseas, including if the Overseas Electors Bill is passed into law.

Sudan: Politics and Government

Nic Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what report he has received on whether all 80 of the detainees included in the Government of Sudan’s announcement of 18 February 2018 have been released.

Harriett Baldwin: The British Government remains concerned about the arbitrary arrest and continued detention without charge or trial of a number of activists involved in recent protests in Sudan. We have continually raised the issue with the Government of Sudan. We have received estimates that around 40 detainees have been released.

Sudan: Politics and Government

Nic Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent reports he has received on whether the Government of Sudan has released political detainees on the condition that they do not organise protests in the future.

Harriett Baldwin: We are not aware of specific incidents of individuals being required not to organise protests as a condition of their release. However, we continue to make clear to the Government of South Sudan our expectation that all detainees will be treated in accordance with international standards. This includes ensuring their unconditional release if there are no charges to be brought against them.

Salih Mahmoud Osman

Nic Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what information he holds on the arrest and detention of Salih Mahmoud, vice chair of the Darfur Bar Association.

Harriett Baldwin: We are aware of the arrest and detention of Salih Mahmoud. We continue to call on the Government of Sudan to release all those detained following recent protests as soon as possible and continue to make clear our expectation that all detainees will be treated in accordance with international standards. More widely, we urge the Government of Sudan to implement the recommendations of the National Dialogue that relate to limiting the powers of the National Intelligence and Security Service to arrest and detain individuals.

Amal Habani

Nic Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what reports he has received on whether the journalist Amal Habani was hospitalised after being beaten by Sudanese security officials.

Harriett Baldwin: We are aware of allegations made about the treatment of Amal Habani during her arrest. We continue to call on the Government of Sudan to release all those detained following recent protests as soon as possible and continue to make clear our expectation that all detainees will be treated in accordance with international standards. More widely, we urge the Government of Sudan to implement the recommendations of the National Dialogue that relate to limiting the powers of the National Intelligence and Security Service to arrest and detain individuals.

Burma: Rohingya

Nick Thomas-Symonds: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to tackle the persecution of the Rohingya in Myanmar.

Mark Field: The Government has consistently urged the Government of Burma the risks in Rakhine since they came to power in April 2016, and urging them to address the underlying issues in Rakhine, including discrimination against the Rohingya people. The UK has supported the Rakhine Advisory Commission (RAC), established by State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi to look at these underlying issues. The UK believes that full implementation of the RAC recommendations are the best opportunity to achieve a long-term and sustainable settlement in Rakhine State which includes the Rohingya.The Foreign Secretary visited Burma on 10-11 February and spoke with State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi about finding a peaceful solution to the humanitarian crisis and for the Rohingya to be able to return to Rakhine province. The Foreign Secretary continues to raise the plight of the Rohingya in his discussions with his counterparts in other countries, as well as in discussions at the EU and UN.

Sudan: Religious Buildings

Nigel Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he has made representations to his counterpart in the Government of Sudan on the recent demolition of places of worship in North Khartoum.

Harriett Baldwin: ​We remain concerned at the infringements of religious freedoms, including the demolition of churches, and continue to raise our concerns with the Government of Sudan as part of our regular dialogue on human rights. Promoting freedom of religion or belief as a means of enhancing tolerance and inclusion will remain a key part of our ongoing engagement.

Poland: Politics and Government

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he has made representations to his counterpart in the Government of Poland on their Holocaust law.

Sir Alan Duncan: ​The Foreign Secretary discussed this issue with his counterpart, the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, on 15 February 2018.

Nuclear Disarmament

Nick Thomas-Symonds: To ask the Secretary of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, whether the Government plans to attend the UN High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament in May.

Sir Alan Duncan: We do not believe the UN High Level Conference in May 2018 will lead to effective progress on nuclear disarmament. It will not address the serious threats to international peace and security posed by nuclear proliferation nor will it take account of the international security environment. We will consider our approach to the Conference closer to the time.

Nuclear Disarmament

Nick Thomas-Symonds: To ask the Secretary of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, what steps the Government is taking to support gradual multilateral nuclear disarmament.

Sir Alan Duncan: ​I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 23 January to PQ 124479.

Gambia: Investment

David T. C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to encourage investment in The Gambia.

Harriett Baldwin: The Minister for the Commonwealth and UN visited Gambia on 16 February, soon after their re-admittance to the Commonwealth. He met the Gambian Trade Minister during his visit to Gambia and also held discussions on agriculture and tourism, in particular on how Gambia could increase the number of British tourists visiting.I congratulate the Government of Gambia and look forward to their participation in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in April. This will be an opportunity for them to commit to good governance and signal to UK companies their commitment to creating a business environment that encourages investment.

Ukraine: Politics and Government

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what his policy is on future of the Minsk II agreement; what assessment he has made of the implications for UK foreign policy of the entry into force of the Ukrainian law on reintegration of the temporarily occupied territories; and if he will make a statement.

Sir Alan Duncan: The UK has been clear that any solution to the conflict in the Donbas must be political not military and that the Minsk II Agreement provides a framework to resolve the conflict. Both sides need to be meeting their commitments under the Minsk agreements, but Russia remains fundamentally responsible for creating this conflict and continuing to maintain it through its political and material support for separatist forces. With respect to the recent law passed in Ukraine on Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories it is important to remember that Russia's territorial aggression in the Donbas and Crimea, and its broader efforts to undermine and destabilise Ukraine, represent a fundamental challenge to the rules-based international order and a threat to regional security. It is for the Ukrainian government to determine how it organises its response to this aggression.

Ukraine: Politics and Government

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department is taking in support of the Minsk II agreement.

Sir Alan Duncan: ​The UK continues to support the French and German-led diplomatic efforts towards securing the implementation by all parties of the Minsk Agreements, including through our major commitment as the second largest contingency of monitors to the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission. Key to implementing the Minsk II Agreement is Russia recognising that it has signed up to commitments including the removal of heavy weapons and its military personnel from Ukraine. We continue to call on Russia to abide by its obligations.

Burma: Politics and Government

Nick Thomas-Symonds: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what further steps the Government is taking to secure a UN resolution condemning persecution of the Rohingya in Myanmar and calling for the return of refugees’ citizenship.

Mark Field: ​The UK co-sponsored resolutions on Burma in both the UN General Assembly (November 2017) and UN Human Rights Council (December 2017). Both resolutions raised serious concerns about the situation in Rakhine and called for the safe, voluntary and dignified return of the displaced Rohingya. They also set out support for early implementation of the Rakhine Advisory Recommendations, including on citizenship.The UN Security Council, in response to a UK led call, convened a further session on 13 February to discuss the Rohingya crisis. We will work to ensure the UN Security Council remains focused on the Rohingya crisis and will consider how best to use the various tools, including resolutions, at the Council’s disposal.

Ukraine: Politics and Government

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to encourage all parties to abide by the Minsk agreements.

Sir Alan Duncan: ​The UK has raised and will continue to raise with Ukraine and Russia the importance of abiding by the Minsk II agreement commitments that they have signed up to. Russia needs to take responsibility for the separatists it continues to arm and support and the UK expects Russia to use its significant influence over these groups to ensure they also abide by the Minsk II Agreement.

Ukraine: Politics and Government

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effect of the recent enactment of the Donbass Reintegration law by the Ukrainian Parliament on the implementation of the Minsk agreements.

Sir Alan Duncan: ​The Donbas Reintegration law provides a mechanism for the Ukrainian Government to respond to the sustained military aggression by Russia and the separatists they support in their efforts to undermine Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. All sides need to abide by their Minsk II Agreement commitments and we are concerned by Russian statements attempting to distance themselves from their very clear obligations.

Jagtar Singh Johal

John Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent representations he has made to the Government of India on the release of Jagtar Singh Johal.

Mark Field: ​We continue to make frequent representations on Mr Johal’s behalf. Most recently, our Deputy High Commissioner in New Delhi raised the case with the Ministry of External Affairs on 19 February. I continue to engage with the family and met the family and their MP, Martin Docherty-Hughes, on 1 February 2018. Our consular staff in India visit Mr Johal regularly.

South Sudan: Armed Conflict

Nigel Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what diplomatic steps his Department is taking to help end the conflict in South Sudan.

Harriett Baldwin: The UK is strongly encouraging all sides to engage constructively with the High Level Revitalisation Forum, and we call on all parties to reconvene as soon as possible, without preconditions, to address the security and governance issues that are essential for peace. The UK Special Representative for Sudan and South Sudan was in the region to participate in both the first and second rounds of the High Level Revitalisation Forum.The UK played a leading role in securing EU sanctions against three South Sudanese leaders in February, and we stand ready to support the efforts of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development to ensure the consequences for those who spoil the peace process are clearly set out and effectively implemented.

Department for Exiting the European Union

Department for Exiting the European Union: Internet

James Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, how many and what proportion of his Department’s cloud hosting contracts have been awarded to (a) hyperscale cloud providers and (b) UK SMEs; and what the value was of those contracts in each of the last three years.

Mr Steve Baker: The Department for Exiting the European Union uses information technology services provided by the Cabinet Office. Therefore, I refer the hon. Member to the answer to Question 129786.

Customs Unions: North East

Catherine McKinnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what assessment he has made of the economic consequences for the North East of leaving the Customs Union after the UK leaves the EU.

Mr Robin Walker: The Government are committed to getting the best possible deal for the United Kingdom - a deal that works for all parts of the UK, including the North East. By leaving the Customs Union and establishing a new and ambitious customs arrangement with the EU, we will be able to forge new trade relationships with our partners around the world, which we believe will boost the economies of regions like the North East. We are undertaking a wide range of analysis and preparatory work that will contribute to our exit negotiations with the EU, to define our future partnership with the EU, and to inform our understanding of how EU exit will affect the UK’s domestic policies and frameworks. However, ministers have a specific responsibility, which Parliament has endorsed, not to release information that could expose our negotiating position.

Department of Health and Social Care

Continuing Care

Barbara Keeley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people in full receipt of NHS continuing healthcare had their cases reviewed and then deemed ineligible for continuing healthcare in 2016-17.

Caroline Dinenage: This information is not currently collected from clinical commissioning groups as part of any national data collection.

Continuing Care

Barbara Keeley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department plans to publish their planned refresh of the National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare.

Caroline Dinenage: The updated National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare and National Health Service-funded Nursing Care was published on 1 March 2018, and will be implemented on 1 October 2018. The current National Framework, published in November 2012, will continue to be in place until that time. This revised 2018 National Framework follows an extensive period of external engagement with stakeholders, across the NHS, local authorities, and patient representative groups. The 2018 National Framework has been collaboratively written by the Department, NHS England and local authorities. The update incorporates a new structure that is intended to provide clarity, reflect legislative changes such as the Care Act 2014, and includes minor clarifications on policy areas. Importantly, none of the 2018 amendments and clarifications to the National Framework are intended to change the eligibility criteria for NHS Continuing Healthcare.

Eating Disorders: Children and Young People

Barbara Keeley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that all community eating disorders services for children and young people are sufficiently staffed so that they are able to offer treatment in line with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines to all young people with a clinical need.

Jackie Doyle-Price: For children and young people with a suspected eating disorder (up to 19 years), the Government is investing £150 million to expand eating disorder services and staff for 70 extended or new established community eating disorder services. This means at least 3,350 children and young people a year will receive swift, effective eating disorder treatment in the community.The Government has commissioned Health Education England to repeat the 2015 baseline audit of the children and young people’s mental health workforce, across all statutory and voluntary sector providers. This will include staff delivering care in the new or extended community eating disorder services. This data will allow NHS England to monitor progress with increasing the staffing of eating disorders services to improve access and deliver care in line with the published pathway guidance and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence clinical guidance.The planned spend by clinical commissioning groups on children and young people’s eating disorders in 2017/18 is £46,717,000 which includes the £30 million per year in clinical commissioning group baselines. This additional funding contributes to increasing staff to create the community eating disorder multidisciplinary teams. Further information is available at:https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/mental-health-five-year-forward-view-dashboard/

Diabetes: Medical Equipment

Laura Pidcock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding for Abbot-Diabetes monitors; and if his Department will extend the availability of free Abbot-Diabetes monitors.

Steve Brine: Within its financial constraint, the National Health Service is committed to providing access to new drugs and medical technologies. Ultimately it is for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), who are primarily responsible for commissioning diabetes services, to meet the requirements of their population. In doing so, CCGs need to ensure that the services they provide are fit for purpose, reflect the needs of the local population and are based on the available evidence and take into account national guidelines. Freestyle Libre, the flash glucose monitoring system manufactured by Abbot was included in Part IX of the England and Wales Drug Tariff from November 2017. People with diabetes insipidus or diabetes mellitus (except where treatment is by diet alone) - which includes type 1 and type 2 diabetes - are eligible for free NHS prescriptions if they hold a valid medical exemption certificate. However, patients will need to discuss the ongoing management of their condition with their healthcare professional and consider what is most suitable for them.

Ambulance Services: Rural Areas

Laura Pidcock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the efficiency of ambulance services in rural areas.

Stephen Barclay: Following the Ambulance Response Programme (ARP), ambulance services in England are currently adapting their operating models to optimise performance against the revised national performance framework and make the best use of resources in order to meet clinical need.The impact of ARP on rural response times was independently reviewed by Sheffield University. This analysis showed that with the introduction of the new prioritisation system, differences between rural and urban populations were reduced, suggesting that the response to urban and rural populations will be more similar in the future.A review of the impact of the new performance framework will be undertaken in the spring.

Mental Health Services: Portsmouth

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on the provision of mental health services in Portsmouth of the fall in the real terms income of Solent NHS Trust between 2011-12 and 2016-17.

Jackie Doyle-Price: NHS England advises that it monitors all clinical commissioning groups’ (CCG) compliance with the Mental Health Investment Standard (MHIS). The MHIS requires that each CCG’s level of investment in mental health services is at least in line with the level of overall funding growth they have received.For 2015/16 and 2016/17 NHS England can confirm that the CCGs in the Portsmouth and South East Hampshire system have met this requirement.

NHS Trusts: Subsidiary Companies

Dr David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether those NHS trusts which have created subsidiary companies have conducted an equalities impact assessment regarding that change.

Stephen Barclay: Where trusts are in the process of setting up subsidiary companies, they are required under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 to conduct an equalities impact assessment regarding that change.

Postnatal Care

Daniel Zeichner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reasons the GP contract includes a postnatal check for babies but not for mothers.

Steve Brine: Under the contracts between general practitioner (GP) practices and NHS England, where a practice provides maternity medical services, the practice is required to provide to female patients and their babies all necessary maternity medical services throughout the postnatal period other than neonatal checks.The GP contract regulations define the postnatal period as “the period beginning with the conclusion of the delivery of the baby or the patient’s discharge from secondary care services (whichever is the later) and ending on the fourteenth day after the birth”.

Dental Services

Julian Sturdy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve access to NHS dental care in (a) York, (b) North Yorkshire and (c) England.

Steve Brine: NHS England has a legal duty to commission National Health Service dental services to meet the needs of the local population. NHS England also has arrangements in place to help patients who cannot find a local dentist that is accepting new patients. Access nationally remains high with 22.1 million adults having seen an NHS dentist in the last 24 months ending in 31 December 2017 and 6.9 million children having seen an NHS dentist in the last 12 months. However, there are areas where there is further to go to ensure that all those who want to access NHS dental care can do so. NHS England (Yorkshire and the Humber) is currently reviewing how it can improve access to NHS dentists from April 2018, prioritising areas where access is particularly difficult.

Dental Services: Children

Julian Sturdy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure all children have access to NHS dental services.

Steve Brine: NHS England has a legal duty to commission National Health Service dental services to meet the needs of the local population. NHS England also has arrangements in place to help patients who cannot find a local dentist that is accepting new patients. The proportion of children seeing a dentist at least once a year is already high with 6.8 million children having seen a dentist in the 12 months ending 31 December 2017. This is 110,767 more children than saw a dentist in the 12 month period ending 31 December 2016. Survey data suggests 75% of children are now decay free at five years old. But there is further to go to ensure all children benefit from this improvement. The proposed new contract being tested includes a clinical pathway which supports dentists to provide the most appropriate preventative care as well as active treatment. Alongside this NHS England is targeting children in areas of particularly high need. The ‘Starting Well’ programme has been launched in 13 high needs areas and aims to reach children not currently being seen regularly by a dentist. Starting Well core, a complementary programme NHS England is developing, will take the principles of approach and make it available as a broader model to any commissioner based on local assessment of need and priorities. This is expected to be available later in 2018.

Health Services: Technology

Adam Afriyie: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of e-health technology in reducing patient waiting lists; and if he will make a statement.

Stephen Barclay: NHS Improvement and NHS England have active programmes of work to review the role of e-health technology in areas such as productivity of operating theatres, the automated monitoring of admitted patients and associated bed occupancy levels and the role of digital patient services.Additionally, the e-Referrals Service allows commissioners and acute hospital providers in England to manage their demand and capacity more effectively, providing opportunities for reduced waiting lists. It also enables general practitioners and patients to make informed decisions about the choice of provider for treatment by identifying providers associated with longer waiting times.

NHS: Cost Effectiveness

Adam Afriyie: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential of machine learning to deliver efficiency savings in the NHS.

Jackie Doyle-Price: A number of National Health Service providers are independently undertaking trials and test beds involving the use of machine learning techniques. As this work is at an early stage and focused on demonstrating clinical safety and effectiveness in a variety of use cases, we do not yet have an overview of the impact on efficiency.

Department of Health and Social Care: Artificial Intelligence

Adam Afriyie: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which artificial intelligence applications his Department uses; and what assessment his Department has made of the potential introduction of further such applications.

Jackie Doyle-Price: The Department does not currently use any artificial intelligence applications. As with other emerging technologies, we will keep this under review.

Health Services: Standards

Adam Afriyie: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to help ensure parity of treatment for patients diagnosed with (a) mental health and (b) physical health conditions.

Jackie Doyle-Price: The Government set parity of esteem in physical and mental health in law in the Health and Social Care Act 2012. The Government further reinforced this commitment by welcoming the independent Mental Health Taskforce’s Five Year Forward View for Mental Health report in February 2016. The report set out a strategy for change in four key areas to drive forward improvements in mental health: promoting good mental health and helping people lead the lives they want to live, integrating care, creating a seven-day National Health Service for mental health and hard wiring mental health across health and social care.The Government accepted all the report’s recommendations in January 2017 and published a detailed action plan for taking forward the recommendations, including how we will monitor progress and report transparently. NHS England’s Implementation plan for the Five Year Forward View, published in July 2016, also set out a robust plan for delivering the commitments set out in the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health.The Government has also set up the first waiting times standards for mental health, including for those experiencing a first episode of psychosis. Latest figures show that over 75% of people experiencing their first episode of psychosis commence treatment within two weeks, exceeding the 50% Early Intervention in Psychosis target set for 2016/17.NHS England’s Mental Health Investment Standard also requires the local NHS to increase mental health investment by at least the same proportion as overall allocations. This is planned to be met across England as a whole in 2017/18 and 2018/19. For 2018/19 all clinical commissioning groups will be required to meet the Mental Health Investment Standard and this will be subject to confirmation by their auditors.

Health Services: Telford and Wrekin

Lucy Allan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of (a) total and (b) per capita funding from his Department's budget on (i) health and (ii) mental health in England has been allocated to Telford and Wrekin CCG since 2010.

Stephen Barclay: Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) were created following the Health and Social Care Act 2012, and replaced primary care trusts on 1 April 2013.NHS England publishes CCG allocations on its website. The table below sets out allocations to NHS Telford and Wrekin CCG for core services since 2013, when it was established. It should be noted that these figures do not reflect any adjustments that may have been made since the time of publication. NHS Telford and Wrekin CCGAllocation (£000)Allocation per head (£)2013/14183,8311,0532014/15187,7651,0682015/16190,9571,0802016/17205,3691,1432017/18209,6131,162 NHS England does not allocate budgets for specific services such as mental health. CCGs determine the level of expenditure appropriate for their population, based on their assessment of local health needs. The figures for Telford and Wrekin CCG’s total expenditure on health and mental health, and this as a proportion of NHS England’s budget in 2016-17, are presented in the table below. NHS Telford and Wrekin CCG2016/17Total expenditure£229.5 millionTotal expenditure as a proportion of NHS England’s budget0.22%Total expenditure on mental health£23.8 millionTotal expenditure on mental health as a proportion of NHS England’s mental health budget0.25%

Hospitals: Parking

Robert Halfon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS hospitals in England charge outpatients to park.

Robert Halfon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS hospitals in England charge inpatients to park.

Robert Halfon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS hospitals in England charge patients with long term medical conditions to park.

Robert Halfon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS hospitals in England charge dialysis patients to park.

Robert Halfon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS hospitals in England charge cancer patients to park.

Robert Halfon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS hospitals in England charge new parents to park.

Robert Halfon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS hospitals in England charge new parents with a baby in the neonatal unit to park.

Robert Halfon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS hospitals in England charge brain injury patients to park.

Stephen Barclay: The information is not collected in the format requested.National Health Service car parking data including the number of NHS hospitals that charge for disabled car parking is collected annually through Estates Return Information Collection (ERIC).All ERIC data is published at the following link:http://hefs.hscic.gov.uk/ERIC.aspThe 2016-17 figures show that out of 1,043 hospital sites that have designated disabled parking, 132 charge for disabled parking which includes disabled people, people with temporary disabilities as well as Blue Badge holders.The provision of parking spaces and the level of any charges are matters for individual NHS trusts. NHS organisations must have the autonomy to make decisions that best suit their local circumstances.The Department has published clear guidelines (the car parking principles) for National Health Service organisations that they are expected to follow.Details of charges, concessions and additional charges should be well publicised including at car park entrances, wherever payment is made and inside the hospital. They should also be included on the hospital website and on patient letters and forms, where appropriate.Hospitals should put concessions in place for those who most need help including disabled people, carers and staff who work shifts. The NHS itself is responsible for ensuring that charges are fairly applied. Patients, visitors and staff who have problems with car parking should therefore contact the NHS organisation which runs the car park.

Hospitals: Admissions

Robert Halfon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people were admitted to an NHS hospital in England with a brain injury or related condition in 2017.

Stephen Barclay: Information is shown in the following table which is a count of finished admission episodes (FAEs), with a primary diagnosis of brain injury, for National Health Service Hospitals within England, for the 2016-17 financial year. This is a count of hospital episodes, not individual patients, as the same person may have been admitted into an NHS hospital on more than one occasion.Diagnosis DescriptionHospital admissions 2016-17Concussion2,318Traumatic cerebral oedema76Diffuse brain injury2,410Focal brain injury1,277Epidural haemorrhage1,072Traumatic subdural haemorrhage11,966Traumatic subarachnoid haemorrhage4,801Intracranial injury with prolonged coma5Other intracranial injuries1,845Intracranial injury, unspecified386Source: Hospital Episode Statistics, NHS Digital Notes: A FAE is the first period of inpatient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. FAEs are counted against the year or month in which the admission episode finishes. It is not possible to include information surrounding all brain related injuries due to the volume of conditions this could potentially include.

Hospitals: Admissions

Robert Halfon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients stayed at an NHS hospital in England for seven days or longer in 2017.

Stephen Barclay: Information is shown in the following table which is a count of finished discharged episodes (FDEs)1 with a spell duration2 of seven days or longer in National Health Service hospitals for the financial year 2016-17.This is a count of hospital episodes, not individual patients, as the same person may have been admitted into an NHS hospital on more than one occasion.YearTotal FDEs2016-171,596,412Source: Hospital Episode Statistics, NHS Digital Notes:A FDE indicates whether the episode is a finished discharge episode (whether the patient was discharged at the end of the episode).The difference in days between the admission date and the discharge date, where both dates are given.

NHS: Staff

Hugh Gaffney: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the UK leaving the EU on staffing levels in the NHS.

Mr George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of EU health workers who have left the NHS since the EU referendum on 23 June 2016.

Stephen Barclay: NHS Digital publishes data on the nationality of staff working in the National Health Service in England and the latest figures show that there were over 3,200 more European Union nationals working in the NHS in September 2017 than before the referendum result.The Government is committed to ensuring that the NHS and social care system have the nurses, midwives, doctors, carers and other health professionals that it needs.We continue to monitor and analyse overall staffing levels across the NHS and adult social care, and we are working across Government to ensure there will continue to be sufficient staff to deliver the high quality services on which patients rely following the United Kingdom’s exit from the EU.On 8 December, the UK and EU Commission reached an agreement which delivered on the Prime Minister’s number one priority, to safeguard the rights of people who have built their lives in the UK and EU, following the UK’s exit from the EU.The agreement will guarantee the rights of the 150,000 EU nationals working in our health and care system. It means that EU citizens living lawfully in the UK and UK nationals living lawfully in the EU by 29 March 2019 will be able to stay and enjoy broadly the same rights and benefits as they do now.

Pharmacy

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to use community pharmacies to help support people with long term conditions to manage their conditions.

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has for greater use of community pharmacies to support (a) A&E departments and (b) general practices.

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the contribution of community pharmacies to the NHS.

Steve Brine: The Government recognises the important contribution that community pharmacies make to the National Health Service. We are encouraging a much greater use of community pharmacies as a first port of call in mass media campaigns such at the current Stay Well pharmacy campaign and by better integration with the rest of the NHS to help take pressure off general practitioners (GPs) and hospitals. In the North East we are currently piloting referrals direct from NHS 111 to community pharmacy and early results are promising. We are also extending the pilot supply of urgent medicines. This has also demonstrated how community pharmacy can relieve pressure on GP and Out of Hours services. Between December 2016 and December 2017 the pilot NHS Urgent Medicines Supply Advanced Service saved 38,900 GP appointments. We will continue to build on this evidence based approach. The Quality Payment scheme introduced by this Government in 2017/18 has encouraged an increase in community pharmacies that are accredited as Healthy Living Pharmacies and there are now over 9,000 embedded in the community, supporting people both with and without long term health conditions to stay well. In addition community pharmacists play an important role through the New Medicines Service and in the advice they provide alongside their dispensing activity in ensuring everyone knows how to take their medicines most effectively. Pharmacy will continue to be a trusted partner in delivering a world class National Health Service and the Government is committed to working with community pharmacy to help make this a reality.

Pancreatic Cancer: Diagnosis

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve early diagnosis rates for pancreatic cancer.

Steve Brine: Pancreatic cancer is often diagnosed late as patients do not usually present to primary or secondary care until symptomatic. There is work underway on early diagnosis using biomarkers but this has not yet extended into clinical practice. Early diagnosis “decision aid tools” have also been explored for use among primary care but the predictive value of these are low so that it is not possible to practically differentiate patients with pancreatic cancer from the far larger proportion of patients without cancer but similar symptoms. NHS England’s Accelerate, Co-ordinate, Evaluate (ACE) programme is testing innovative ways of diagnosing cancer earlier, with ACE Wave 2 piloting multi-disciplinary diagnostic centres for patients with vague or non-specific symptoms.

Prostate Cancer

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to (a) raise awareness and (b) reduce the prevalence of prostate cancer.

Steve Brine: Prostate cancer is a disease that mainly affects men over the age of 55 and the numbers of men diagnosed has increased due to the ageing population. Public Health England ran a Be Clear on Cancer local pilot campaign to raise awareness of the increased risk of prostate cancer amongst black men in six London boroughs in 2014. NHS England continues to support effective new treatments and diagnostics and implement the ambitious independent Cancer Taskforce strategy and is working closely with leading clinical experts and Prostate Cancer UK to bring the latest research on this disease into practice. Targeted work is also being undertaken to ensure prostate cancer is diagnosed quickly and that everyone receives the best care wherever they live across the country.

Prostate Cancer: Screening

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of (a) the potential number of cases of prostate cancer which could be identified earlier by a national prostate cancer screening programme and (b) the potential effect such a programme on survival rates.

Steve Brine: The United Kingdom National Screening Committee (UK NSC) last reviewed the evidence about screening for prostate cancer in 2016. Evidence showed that prostate screening can reduce prostate cancer deaths by 27% of the 10,000 lives lost in the UK annually to prostate cancer. No assessment has been made on the potential number of cases identified earlier by a screening programme.The Committee recommended against a population screening programme. The reasons for this included that the test which is available for use in screening, Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA), is neither very specific nor very sensitive, and is unable to distinguish between slow-growing and fast-growing cancers; there is therefore a risk that a national screening programme would lead to a high number of false positives. There are major harms of treating men who incorrectly test positive (i.e. have false positive tests), these include impotence, incontinence and rectal problems.The UK NSC will be reviewing the evidence to screen for prostate cancer later in 2018/19. More information will be available at:https://legacyscreening.phe.org.uk/prostatecancer

Prostate Cancer: Mortality Rates

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve pancreatic cancer survival rates.

Steve Brine: National Health Service services for pancreatic cancer have been significantly improved in recent years. This includes clearer diagnostic pathways; decision making by specialist multi-disciplinary teams; and the centralisation of pancreas surgery within specialist teams.The Five Year Forward View ‘Next Steps’ Plan is available at:https://www.england.nhs.uk/five-year-forward-view/This now aims to further improve cancer survival by an extra 5,000 people and improve experience of care over the next two years, with a range of improvements including:- Patients having better access to the latest treatments, with roll-out of the largest radiotherapy upgrade programme in 15 years, with an extra £94 million to be spent on equipping hospitals with state of the art linear accelerators;- Patients being tested sooner with investment in greater diagnostic capacity, including 10 new Rapid Diagnostic and Assessment Centres. This will be measured through the new 28 day faster diagnosis standard which will be rolled out from April 2018; and- Personalised care and support being offered to patients during treatment and for those recovering from cancer, improving their quality of life and experience of care.

Cancer

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with the devolved Administrations on the future treatment and care of people with cancer.

Steve Brine: No such discussions have taken place.

Cancer

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what comparative assessment he has made of the speed with which (a) GPs in the UK and (b) their equivalents in other countries refer patients who might have cancer; and what steps he is taking to improve the speed of cancer referrals.

Steve Brine: No such assessment has been made. ‎ In December 2017, the latest month for which figures are available, 94.9% of people were seen by a specialist within two weeks of an urgent general practitioner referral for suspected cancer.Improving early diagnosis of cancer is a priority for this Government. We have committed to delivering the recommendations in the Independent Cancer Taskforce report, ‘Achieving World-Class Cancer Outcomes: A strategy for England 2015-2020’, including the new 28 day faster diagnosis standard. NHS England has also confirmed £200 million of transformation funding over the next two years, this includes encouraging local areas to find new and innovative ways to diagnose cancer earlier.

Cancer: Mortality Rates

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to increase cancer survival rates in the next five years.

Steve Brine: Cancer is a priority for this Government and survival rates are at a record high1. Since 2010 rates of survival from cancer have increased year-on-year. Around 7,000 people are alive today who would not have been had mortality rates stayed the same as in 2010. But we know there is more to do, and NHS England is leading the health and care system in implementing the recommendations of the independent Cancer Taskforce report, ‘Achieving World-Class Cancer Outcomes: A strategy for England 2015-2020’, to save a further 30,000 lives a year by 2020. Note:1Between 2005 and 2013 one-year survival for all cancers combined increased from 63.6% to 70.2%. Between 2005 and 2009 five-year survival for all cancer combined increased from 46.2% to 49.6%.Source: Office for National Statistics

Cancer: Screening

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time was for cancer test results in each hospital trust in England in 2009-10 and each subsequent year.

Steve Brine: Data is not available in the format requested.NHS England publishes monthly performance data against the waiting times standards for diagnostic tests and the waiting times of people referred by their general practitioner with suspected cancer or breast symptoms and those subsequently diagnosed with and treated for cancer. This information is available at the following links: https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/diagnostics-waiting-times-and-activity/ https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/cancer-waiting-times/Performance data on diagnostic tests include Magnetic Resonance Imaging scans and the other key tests (chest x-ray to aid in diagnosing lung cancer; non-obstetric ultrasound to support the diagnosis of ovarian cancers; flexible sigmoidoscopy/colonoscopy to support the diagnosis of bowel cancer), however many of the tests also have wider clinical uses.

Cancer: Drugs

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients have received medicine funded by the Cancer Drugs Fund by medicine since 2016.

Steve Brine: Since the new Cancer Drugs Fund began in July 2016, just over 17,600 patients have been registered to receive treatment for 48 medicines. Below is a table showing the breakdown by medicine.DrugNumberAtezolizumab34Bendamustine2,321Bevacizumab1,595Blinatumomab29Bortezomib105Bosutinib39Brentuximab346Cabozantinib154Carfilzomib45Ceritinib15Cetuximab1,708Clofarabine82Crizotinib127Daratumumab35Dasatinib107Eribulin347Everolimus370Ibrutinib1,067Ipilimumab/Nivolumab97Ixazomib119LenvatinibFewer than 10Nab-paclitaxel134Nelarabine45Nivolumab541Obinutuzumab33Olaratumumab199Osimertinib255Palbociclib413Panitumumab392Pemetrexed37Pembrolizumab1,604Pertuzumab1,739Pegylated liposomal doxorubicin48Pomalidomide380Ponatinib88Radium-223 Dichloride243Regorafenib74Ribociclib29Sorafenib871Sunitinib71Talimogene laherparepvecFewer than 10TemsirolimusFewer than 10Trastuzumab Emtansine673Trametinib/Dabrafenib172Trifluridine and tipiracil444Vandetanib40Venetoclax118Vismodegib217Source: NHS England. Information provided from 31 July 2016 to end of January 2018 (latest data available). Note: Numbers lower than 10 are rounded-up to avoid releasing potentially patient identifiable data, as per NHS England’s data protection commitments.

Cancer: Drugs

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with his counterpart in the Northern Ireland Government on the availability of drugs to treat cancer.

Steve Brine: No such discussions have taken place.

Mental Illness: Children

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many young people aged 17 and under were sectioned under the Mental Health Act 1983 by age in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available.

Jackie Doyle-Price: The information is not available in the format requested.

Mental Health Services: Care Leavers

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve access to mental health services for care leavers who are between 18 and 25 years old.

Jackie Doyle-Price: We know that mental health needs are much more prevalent among children in care, which is why NHS England is currently testing models for the use of personal budgets for looked after children, which includes children on the edges of care.The Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Education also commissioned the Social Care Institute for Excellence to convene an expert working group to look at improving the mental health and emotional wellbeing of looked after and previously looked after children. A report was published at the end of last year and the Departments are considering the recommendations in the report and how to take them forward.Transitions from children and young people’s mental health services to adult services can be a difficult time for young people. NHS England has therefore developed a model specification for such transitions and included transition from children and young people’s mental health services as one of 13 mandatory national indicators in the Commissioning for Quality and Innovation scheme (2017/19). This offers financial incentives to local areas to make improvements in support of the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health and NHS mandate and will encourage improved transition planning and better experiences for children and young people.The joint health and education green paper: ‘Transforming children and young people’s mental health provision’ also included a commitment to set up a new national strategic partnership to support the mental health of 16-25 year olds and encourage more coordinated action and robust evaluation.

Mental Health Services: Children

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many young people of what age under 18 were treated in adult mental health wards in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available.

Jackie Doyle-Price: The information is not available in the format requested.

Mental Health Services

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the longest period of time was that a patient has had to wait for access to mental health services in the last 10 years.

Jackie Doyle-Price: The information requested has not been collected for the past 10 years. Waiting times only began being collected in April 2015 for Improving Access to Psychological Therapies, and January 2016 for Early Intervention in Psychosis and children and young people with eating disorders. In addition, quality assurance is not as robust at the level of individual records as at a system level – therefore NHS Digital advises that statistical outliers are likely to be due to data quality or data collection errors rather than an accurate record of how long individuals are waiting for treatment.

Mental Health Services: Young People

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many young people were registered with Child and Mental Health services in (a) England, (b) London, (c) each London borough and (d) each London health trust on 1 January of each year since 2010.

Jackie Doyle-Price: The information is not held in the format requested.

Mental Health Services: Staff

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to improve the support available to mental health professionals to manage their own mental health.

Jackie Doyle-Price: The Government is committed to improving the support available to all employees, including mental health professionals to manage their own mental health.For people working in mental health services, Health Education England published ‘Stepping Forward to 2020/21: Mental Health Workforce Plan for England’ in 2017. This included a commitment to provide supportive management for those working in high stress environments.In the National Health Service as a whole, the Healthy Workforce Programme, established by NHS England in 2015, is encouraging NHS organisations to improve the health and wellbeing of its staff, including through rapid access to talking therapies.

Mental Health Services: Children

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to improve access to mental health services for children who have (a) been the victims of abuse and (b) experienced other trauma.

Jackie Doyle-Price: The Five Year Forward View for Mental Health set out key recommendations for transforming mental health service provision to provide equitable access to high quality care for all people, including children who have been the victim of abuse and or experience other trauma. In January 2017 the Government responded accepting all of the recommendations. A copy of the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health is available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Mental-Health-Taskforce-FYFV-final.pdfBy 2020/21, there will be a significant expansion in access to high-quality mental health care for children and young people. At least 70,000 additional children and young people each year will receive evidence-based treatment.Additionally the Government published the ‘Transforming children and young people’s mental health provision: a Green Paper’ on 4 December. This sets out an ambitious set of proposals to transform support for children and young people’s mental health and improve access to National Health Service-funded services. This is supported by an additional £300 million to deliver its key proposals. Further information is available at:https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/transforming-children-and-young-peoples-mental-health-provision-a-green-paper

Ambulance Services

Laura Pidcock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information he holds on average ambulance waiting times in each year since 2010.

Stephen Barclay: Information is not available in the format requested. National and individual National Health Service ambulance trust level performance is available and is published monthly by NHS England. This can be found online at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ambulance-quality-indicators/

Social Services: Minimum Wage

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the total sleep-in back pay liability for providers in (a) North Norfolk constituency and (b) the Norfolk County Council area; and if he will make a statement.

Caroline Dinenage: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Worsley and Eccles South (Barbara Keeley) on 26 February 2018 to Question 128962.

Public Sector: Food

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if the Government will bring the Balanced Scorecard approach for public procurement of food and drink in line with the 2015 SACN sugar recommendations.

Steve Brine: The Government continues to consider the recommendations from the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition report on ‘Carbohydrates and Health’ and how these can be incorporated into policy, including reducing sugar consumption. ‘Carbohydrates and Health’ is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/445503/SACN_Carbohydrates_and_Health.pdf

Eating Disorders

Sir Mark Hendrick: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what events Ministers of his Department attended during Eating Disorders Week between 26 February and 4 March 2018.

Jackie Doyle-Price: I responded to a parliamentary debate marking Eating Disorders Awareness Week on 27 February, paying tribute to the work of BEAT and their ambassadors. A scheduled visit during Eating Disorders Week to Bristol Eating Disorders Health Integration Team had to be postponed due to the inclement weather.

Wales Office

Wales Office: Business Interests

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, which members of his Department's board are responsible for ensuring the proper application of the business appointment rules for former Ministers and senior civil servants.

Stuart Andrew: Applications by former Ministers are considered by the independent Advisory Committee on Business Appointments directly. For applications from former Civil Servants, departmental Audit and Risk Committees, which are chaired by departmental Non-Executive Directors, monitor compliance issues relating to the Business Appointment Rules at regular intervals.

Department for Education

Secondary Education: Barnet

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if his Department will make an assessment of the need for additional secondary schools in the London Borough of Barnet.

Nick Gibb: Officials are working with Barnet Council to determine the need for a further secondary free school within the borough. This school is in addition to two currently planned free schools that will provide 1,800 secondary places for ages 11 to 16 when at capacity. Opening new free schools in areas of need is a key priority for this Government, and supports the efforts of local authorities to fulfil their duty to provide sufficient school places. In addition, the Department has provided Barnet local authority with £87 million between 2011-2017 to create new school places, and allocated a further £25.5 million for 2017-2020.

School Leaving

Douglas Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of school leavers have participated in further and technical education in England in each year since 2010.

Anne Milton: The Department has two principal sources showing participation in education and other activities by young people as they transition between ages 16 and 19. Destination measures show the activities of young people in the year following their completion of Key Stage 4 (GCSEs) and Key Stage 5 (A levels and other Level 3). The 16-18 participation statistical first release (SFR) shows snapshot estimates of participation in different activities at each of academic ages 16, 17 and 18.Destination measures show the percentage of students with sustained participation in education or employment over six months following the end of their phase of study. Information on pupil destinations is published annually on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-destinations.The attached table A shows the proportion of students in sustained study at further education or other FE providers since 2010 following their completion of Level 3 16-18 study (state-funded mainstream schools and colleges in England). See table NA10 in the Key Stage 5 national tables document for full breakdowns.The attached table B shows the proportion of students in sustained study at further education or other FE providers since 2010 following their completion of Key Stage 4 study (state-funded mainstream schools in England).Estimates of national participation rates in England at academic ages 16, 17 and 18 are provided in the Department for Education SFR ‘Participation in education, training and employment: 2016’ published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/participation-in-education-training-and-employment-2016. These differ from the destination measures estimates provided above because they are not linked to previous study and provide estimates for the whole population, and they are based on a snapshot of activities at the end of the calendar year (rather than over a 6 month period).The attached table C shows estimates of the proportion of young people participating in full time education at general FE, tertiary and specialist colleges at academic age 16 and 18, at the end of 2016. Note that the SFR also provides estimates of participation by level and type of qualification.



129902 attachment - Tables A, B & C
(Word Document, 34.09 KB)

School Leaving

Douglas Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of school leavers have participated in higher education in England in each year since 2010.

Mr Sam Gyimah: The department has two principal sources showing participation in education and other activities by young people as they transition between ages 16 and 19. Destination measures show the activities of young people in the year following their completion of key stage 4 (GCSEs) and key stage 5 (A-levels and other Level 3). The 16-18 Participation Statistical First Release (SFR) shows snapshot estimates of participation in different activities at each of academic ages 16, 17 and 18. Destination measures show the percentage of students with sustained participation in education or employment over six months following the end of their phase of study. Information on pupil destinations is published annually on GOV.UK at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-destinations. The table in attachment one shows the proportion of students in sustained study at higher education institutions since 2010 following their completion of 16-18 study (state-funded mainstream schools and colleges in England). See table NA10 in the ‘Key stage 5 –national tables: SFR56/2017’ document for full breakdowns: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/652777/SFR56_2017_KS5_National_Tables_1516.ods. Estimates of national participation rates in England at academic ages 16, 17 and 18 are provided in the department’s SFR 'Participation in education, training and employment: 2016' published here https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/participation-in-education-training-and-employment-2016. These differ from the destination measures estimates provided, because they are not linked to previous study and provide estimates for the whole population, and they are based on a snapshot of activities at the end of the calendar year (rather than over a six-month period). The table in attachment two shows estimates of the proportion of young people participating in full-time education, by institution type, at academic age 16 and 18, at the end of 2016.



Proportion of students in sustained study at HEIs
(Word Document, 13.88 KB)




Participation in full-time education by age 
(Word Document, 12.8 KB)

STEM Subjects

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to promote STEM careers and pathways to (a) students, (b) parents, (c) teachers and (d) governors as part of the 2018 Year of Engineering.

Anne Milton: The Year of Engineering 2018 is a year-long, cross-government, national campaign aimed at raising the profile of engineering among seven to 16 year olds and widening the pool of young people that consider engineering as a career. It will do this by:- Working with partners from different sectors to give young people direct and inspiring experiences of engineering, including outreach work in schools, behind the scenes tours and activities for young people and their families.- Showcasing the variety, creativity and social value of modern engineering and the difference it can make to people’s live, appealing to the career aspirations of young people, in particular girls and young women.- Challenging negative or traditional perceptions of the profession and obstacles to considering it as a career choice by putting engineering role models in the spotlight to show that background, gender and education do not need to be a barrier to becoming an engineer. The department’s reforms of the national curriculum and qualifications will ensure that young people study a rigorous mathematics and science curriculum that will provide them with the foundation they will need to study engineering at the next stage of their education or to enter employment. We also have a number of initiatives to improve the quality of teaching science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects in schools, such as incentives to attract top graduates into teaching and the provision of high quality professional development for teachers through the network of mathematics hubs and science learning partnerships. More targeted support for schools also seeks to address more specific issues such as the take-up of mathematics and physics at A-level, particularly among girls, and the number of pupils opting to take GCSE triple science. From 2018-19, the Advanced Maths Premium will provide schools and colleges an additional £600 per year for every extra pupil studying one of a range of academic level 3 mathematics qualifications. The department is improving STEM careers advice in schools, including ensuring that STEM encounters, such as with employers and apprenticeships, are built into school career programmes by updating school and college statutory guidance.

STEM Subjects

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will take steps to ensure that the National Careers Service website includes case studies of diverse STEM role models and career pathways.

Anne Milton: The National Careers Service contains a wealth of information about careers and learning, including over 800 job profiles across a variety of sectors, including science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). The website is currently being redeveloped to better meet the needs of users. The job profiles are being improved and will include information on how young people and adults can enter or progress in STEM careers, including salary ranges and any specific skills or qualifications required.

Apprentices: Telford

Lucy Allan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of young people in Telford started an apprenticeship after completing GCSEs in each year since 2010.

Anne Milton: The table attached shows the number and proportion of pupils who completed Key Stage 4 (including GCSEs) in Telford and started an apprenticeship the following year as part of at least two terms’ education, employment or training. Information on destinations in academic years 2010-11 to 2015-16 is given. This is the most recent data available. Destinations data for all England is provided for comparison.Information on pupil destinations is published annually on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-destinations.



129987 attachment
(Word Document, 35.15 KB)

Apprentices: Public Sector

Lucy Allan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many of the 200,000 new public sector apprenticeships announced by his Department on 20 January 2017 have been filled; and how many of those apprenticeships are based in (a) the Telford constituency, (b) Telford and Wrekin and (c) the West Midlands.

Anne Milton: Figures on the number of public sector apprenticeships are not available. Public sector bodies in scope of the public sector apprenticeships target are required annually to publish and send to the Department their progress towards the target. The first reports (covering the period 2017/18) will be due by 30 September 2018.

Supply Teachers

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much money was spent by (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in employing supply teachers in each of the last eight years.

Nick Gibb: The Department publishes the amount spent by schools on supply teaching staff annually for:Local authority maintained schools on the Department’s School and College Performance website at: https://www.gov.uk/school-performance-tables available for 2010-11 to 2016-17; andAcademies in the Department’s Statistical First Release ‘Income and expenditure in academies in England’ at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-local-authority-school-finance-data#academy-spending available since 2011/12, when they were first collected in this format, up to 2015/16. Data for 2016/17 will published in the summer of 2018. The Department is working with Crown Commercial Service to develop a commercial framework for agency supply teachers to support schools with ensuring value for money when using agency staff. The framework is expected to be available for schools to use from September 2018.

Classroom Assistants

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of trends in the use of (a) higher level teacher assistants and (b) cover supervisors to cover teaching absences.

Nick Gibb: The Department collects information on the number of higher level teaching assistants and cover supervisors employed in schools. However, no information is available on the amount of time these staff spend covering teaching absences. The full-time equivalent number of contracted staff whose role is defined as that of ‘higher level teaching assistant’ or of ‘cover supervisor’, employed by state funded schools in England, November 2010 to 2016 is provided in the table below.  State Funded Schools  Higher Level Teaching Assistant Cover SupervisorNovember   201011,040 ..201112,150 7,490201213,380 8,010201314,650 8,000201415,850 8,100201516,410 7,970201617,140 7,640Source: School Workforce Census Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.

Supply Teachers

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will publish the names of all supply teacher agencies registered with his Department in each year for which data is available.

Nick Gibb: The Department does not register supply teacher agencies. However, the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) do have a list of agencies that currently hold the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) Audited Education status. This is available on line and maintained by REC: https://www.rec.uk.com/business-support/audited/audited-members-directory. To support schools to achieve value for money when using supply agencies, we are working with CCS to develop a commercial framework for agency supply teachers. The framework will bring transparency to agency margins and require agencies to adhere to standard levels of practice, including the use of temp-to-perm fees. The framework is expected to be available for schools to use from September 2018.

Children's Commissioner for England: Advisory Bodies

Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the selection process is for members of the Children's Commissioner's Advisory Board.

Nadhim Zahawi: The Children’s Commissioner for England’s advisory board brings together individuals from across the children’s sector and wider civil society. Membership is by the formal invitation of the Children’s Commissioner following public advertisement and a recruitment exercise. The Children’s Commissioner selects members from applications received and they are invited on the basis of the following considerations: a track record of excellence at a strategic policy and delivery level;a track record of high strategic or operational performance to support services relevant to children young people and families;proven knowledge and experience of policymaking and public affairs; and/orknowledge of the role, remit, powers and duties of the Children’s Commissioner as defined in legislation. The work of the advisory board is undertaken paying due regard to the seven principles of the Code of Conduct for those in Public Life. The terms of reference for the Advisory Board are publically available here: https://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/report/ advisory-board/.

Pupils: Mental Illness

Nigel Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of support for pupils who experience mental health problems.

Nick Gibb: In 2016, the Department commissioned a nationally representative survey of the mental health support provided in schools and colleges. It was published in August 2017 and included a number of qualitative reports on different aspects of practice. The reports can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supporting-mental-health-in-schools-and-colleges. This research informed the green paper Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision which was published in December 2017. The green paper was also informed by a systematic review of the evidence relating to the mental health of children and young people carried out by the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health and University College London. The green paper includes a summary of the findings, which the reviewers will publish in due course.The green paper can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/transforming-children-and-young-peoples-mental-health-provision-a-green-paper.

Children: Disadvantaged

Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 2 February to Question 125796, on vulnerable children, which professionals, schools and other experts have been consulted as part of the Government's scoping exercise; and what evidence has assessed during that work.

Nadhim Zahawi: The department’s work in scoping a review of the outcomes of and support for Children in Need consulted a range of organisations and individuals, including from: sector representatives, children’s charities, local children’s services departments, primary and secondary schools, research organisations and related cross-government teams. This involved speaking to over 120 individuals, including more than 25 social workers, around 40 social worker leaders and around 40 school leaders. This engagement took the form of individual meetings, roundtables, participation in cross-government events and deep dive visits to local services in Birmingham, Solihull and Blackpool, as areas with different profiles of need.In addition to the evidence provided by this direct consultation, the department considered emerging learning from projects funded through the Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme, reviewed academic literature, and assessed data collected through the annual Children in Need census.

Universities: Strikes

Jo Swinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect on students of the loss of teaching hours as a result of the university lecturers’ pension strike.

Mr Sam Gyimah: Universities are autonomous institutions and it is for them to assess the impact of the strike action on their provision. While the Department for Education has not made its own assessment, we remain concerned about any impact of the strikes on students and expect universities to put in place measures to maintain the quality of education that students should receive. We note that the Universities and Colleges Employers Association, which represents UK higher education organisations as employers, polled the 56 universities, which were the focus of strikes on 22 and 23 February 2018. Results of this polling indicate that the overall impact in four out of five institutions was between ‘none’ and ‘low-medium’.

Department for Education: Internet

James Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of his Department’s cloud-hosting contracts have been awarded to (a) hyperscale cloud providers and (b) UK SMEs; and what the value of those contracts was in each of the last three years.

Anne Milton: The Department for Education has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Department for Education: Internet

James Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the volume of UK citizens’ data held by companies (a) supplying cloud services to his Department and (b) contracted to deliver cloud services on behalf of his Department that is subject to information requests from US Government bodies.

Anne Milton: The Department for Education has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Children: Day Care

Tracy Brabin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many two year-old children were eligible for childcare places for disadvantaged two-year olds in each of the last five years.

Nadhim Zahawi: The estimated number of two-year-olds eligible for 15 hours of free early education is shown in the table below: Two-year-old eligible population estimates[1]EnglandYears: 2015 -2017YearEligible two-year-olds2017230,9002016246,5002015269,800Source: Department for Work and Pensions estimates of eligible population We do not hold an estimate for the eligible population prior to 2015. This is because the entitlement to 15 hours of free early education for disadvantaged two-year-olds was introduced in September 2013 and extended in September 2014. The January 2015 early years census, the first census following the extension, was the first to record the eligible population. [1] The estimated number of eligible two-year-olds is based on analysis of administrative data held by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) containing information on benefit and tax credit records relating to November each year.The estimate is therefore based on the benefit and tax credit eligibility criteria only. The following non-economic eligibility criteria are not covered: children with a current statement of Special Educational Needs (SEN) or an Education, Health and Care plan; children who are looked after by a local authority; children who are no longer looked after by the local authority as a result of an adoption order, a special guardianship order or a child arrangements order which specifies with whom the child lives. Two-year-olds from families in receipt of Universal Credit are also not included in the published figures.

Children's Centres: Public Consultation

Tracy Brabin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions his Department has had since September 2015 with (a) other government departments, (b) the children’s sector and (c) early years' practitioners on the consultation on children’s centres.

Nadhim Zahawi: The department has had numerous discussions with representatives of each of the stakeholder groups named in the question about a range of early years issues, including children’s centres, since September 2015. We do not hold records of every discussion that has taken place.

Pre-school Education: Pay

Tracy Brabin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect of levels of pay in the early years and childcare sector on settings' capacity to employ staff qualified to Level 3 or above.

Nadhim Zahawi: The Department for Education does not set pay and conditions for early years professionals employed in private and voluntary sector organisations, which is the majority of the early years workforce.The most recent data we have on the early years sector and pay is from the 2016 Survey of Childcare and Early Years Providers SFR (statistical first release). The accompanying research report, which is more detailed than the SFR, is available at:https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/593965/SFR09_2017_Research_Report.pdf. The section on Childcare staff pay in group-based and school-based providers can be found in pages 69 to 72. Employers are responsible for staff recruitment. We do not hold data on unfilled vacancies. The Early Years Workforce strategy published in March 2017 is intended to support the early years sector to remove barriers to attracting, retaining and developing the early years workforce.

Pre-school Education: Assessments

Tracy Brabin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) companies and (b) other organisations have submitted bids to the tendering process for the early years baseline assessment.

Nadhim Zahawi: The procurement for a supplier to develop and deliver the reception baseline assessment is currently in progress. The process is following all due commercial procedure and, as such, no information can currently be disclosed on the number of bids received during the tendering stage.

Ministry of Justice

Personal Injury: Legal Representation

Ellie Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many litigants in person pursued personal injury cases in the courts in each of the last 5 years.

Lucy Frazer: The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Personal Injury: Fraud

Ellie Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment his Department has made of the level of proven fraud or exaggeration in non-road traffic accident injury claims.

Lucy Frazer: The Association of British Insurers’ most recent public assessment suggests that the level of detected insurance claims fraud (including road traffic accidents) was £1.3 billion in 2016. The Government is aware of fraud in package holiday sickness claims and is taking action to address it.

Prisons: Private Sector

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department plans to increase the number of private prisons.

Rory Stewart: We will modernise the prison estate, closing older prisons that are not fit for purpose and creating in their place high-quality, modern establishments. This will help deliver prisons that are more safe and secure, so our staff can work more closely with offenders to change their lives and turn their back on crime for good. Decisions have yet to be made about the future operation of any new prisons or existing privately managed prisons where contracts are due to expire in the next five years.

Prisoners

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of trends in the level of violence and self-harm in prisons.

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effect of the number of (a) prisoners and (b) staff on levels of violence in prisons.

Rory Stewart: Many complex factors are linked to violence in prisons . Prominent among them is the use of drugs the debt often associated with it. Additionally, violence may be linked to membership of gangs, whilst some violence will be the result of frustration at the physical condition of the prison environment and lack of opportunities to be engaged in purposeful activity. There is only limited evidence to suggest that an increased number of prisoners in a prison (known as crowding) is a direct cause of violence. The skills of staff are more important, and play a critical role in maintaining order. The Secretary of State has announced a range of measures to deal with the problem of drugs in prison. They include a £14m investment in intelligence and organised crime teams; new technology to download data from illicit mobile phones, and changes to the security categorisation of prisoners who continue to commit these offences in prison. We are also investing in 2,500 more staff in order to deliver consistent, purposeful regimes. We are providing training to both new and existing staff to equip them to take on the new key worker role, in which they will provide more effective challenge and support to prisoners. Our latest published safety statistics show that levels of violence and self-harm are at record highs, which is why improving prison safety remains a top priority. Our Prison Safety Programme includes a comprehensive set of actions to address both violence and self-harm. We have invested in 5,600 body-worn cameras, which will provide high-quality evidence to support prosecutions brought against prisoners. They are being deployed alongside staff training to support better interaction and relationships. We have also introduced a new case management system for violent prisoners, known as the Challenge, Support and Intervention Plan. A comprehensive roll out of improved suicide and self-harm prevention training has already reached over 14,300 staff. We are making improvements to the support that we offer to prisoners in their early days in custody, and to the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork case management process for those identified as being at risk. We are also renewing our partnership with the Samaritans, who provide the valuable Listeners Scheme.

Prisons: Overcrowding

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to reduce overcrowding in prisons.

Rory Stewart: We are committed to ensuring that prisons are safe, decent and support rehabilitation. We are modernising the prison estate, closing older prisons that are not fit for purpose and creating in their place high-quality, rehabilitative establishments. We have started to redevelop the prisons at Glen Parva (Leicestershire) and Wellingborough (Northamptonshire). We are building a new houseblock at Stocken prison (Rutland). The Verne, a former HM Prison and Probation Service operated immigration removal centre in Dorset, will be reopening as a prison later this year and is expected to hold 580 offenders.

Community Rehabilitation Companies: Standards

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the performance of privatised probation companies.

Rory Stewart: Our probation reforms mean we are now monitoring 40,000 offenders who would previously have been released with no supervision at all. The performance of Community Rehabilitation Companies is assessed through a range of service levels and through a robust contract management and assurance process. Performance information against these service levels is published quarterly, and the latest data can be found at:https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/community-performance-quarterly-mi-update-to-september-2017

Community Rehabilitation Companies

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment has he made of reoffending levels since the part-privatisation of probation.

Rory Stewart: Our probation reforms mean we are now monitoring 40,000 offenders who would previously have been released with no supervision at all. Latest statistics show that overall Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) have reduced the number of people reoffending by 2% since the Transforming Rehabilitation reforms were implemented. While the frequency of reoffending has been rising since 2009, it is nevertheless disappointing that 19 of 21 CRCs have not been able to reverse this trend. We are working with providers to understand the reasons for these results and discuss improvements we might make to the delivery of services.

Community Rehabilitation Companies: Staff

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to ensure that private probation companies have adequate staffing levels.

Rory Stewart: The Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) Contracts require each CRC to ensure that it employs a sufficient level of staff, and that its workforce is competent and adequately trained. Our Contract Management Teams closely monitor and robustly manage providers on a local basis, taking into account the regional context, to make sure they fulfil their contractual commitments to reduce reoffending, protect the public and provide value for money to the taxpayer; including through the introduction of action plans, when appropriate, to respond to specific performance concerns.

Community Rehabilitation Companies

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to make additional extra payments to privatised probation companies following the £342 revision in 2017.

Rory Stewart: Our probation reforms mean we are now monitoring 40,000 offenders who would previously have been released with no supervision at all.  We made changes to Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) contracts in 2017 so that payments to providers reflect more accurately the costs of delivering services to offenders. These changes to the contractual payment mechanism increased the potential value of contracts by up to £277m over their remaining life, though payments will remain subject to future volumes. Projected payments to providers will be no higher than originally budgeted for at the time of the Transforming Rehabilitation reforms. ‘We continue to discuss with providers ways in which we might improve CRC services and performance while ensuring value for money and will update Parliament should these result in further contractual changes.

Legal Aid Scheme: Cost Effectiveness

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what research his Department has undertaken into the cost effectiveness of legal aid for early legal help.

Lucy Frazer: The ability of individuals to resolve their legal problems is vital to a just society. We are committed to ensuring legal aid and other forms of legal support are available to those who need it.Legal aid for early advice continues to be available in a wide range of cases and last year nearly £100m of public money was spent on early legal advice in civil cases.We are conducting an evidence-based review of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, to assess the changes made against their objectives. We will publish our findings this year.

Prisons: Closures

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 9 February 2018 to Question 125714, what his Department's estimated cost is for determining on how many occasions wings of publicly-owned prisons were closed due to insufficient staff levels in December 2017.

Rory Stewart: The requested information is not recorded centrally as this is not a business requirement nor is it required under any accounting regulation. In respect of cost related to collate the information requested, we would need to collect this data from each individual prison, then collate it into a single figure. The time taken to complete this work would exceed the Department’s cost limit of £850 for answering a parliamentary question. We estimate a minimum cost of around £3,000 to create and collate this information separately. As reported in the previous answer, the Government is fully committed to making our prisons safe and is actively taking the measures necessary to ensure that. We are giving prisons and Governors every possible support. We are boosting the number of prison officers by 2,500; and we are also giving officers the tools they need to manage violent offenders.

Amey and Carillion

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 9 February 2018 to Question 126482, what estimate his Department made of the cost of providing the information sought.

Rory Stewart: As stated in the answer to Question 126482, the Department doesn’t record the information in this manner. Hundreds of thousands of individual maintenance tasks are undertaken across the prison estate each year, therefore to provide this information would require a detailed analysis of each of these tasks.

Birmingham Prison: Civil Disorder

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 9 February 2018 to Question 126526, if he will publish the report into the riot at HMP Birmingham in December 2016 with the sections which could compromise security arrangements redacted.

Rory Stewart: This internal report was compiled so we could review the incident and take appropriate action, which we have now done. As such, and as I said in my answer of 9 February 2018 to Question 126526, the report contains in-depth details of the safety and security procedures at HMP Birmingham which, if released, could compromise security arrangements at the establishment. It is not therefore appropriate to release any part of it and we will not be doing so.

Community Rehabilitation Companies

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of Question 8 February 2018 to Question 125878, on Community Rehabilitation Companies, whether the monitoring of expenditure referred to in that Answer includes monitoring decisions on executive pay and the payment of dividends.

Rory Stewart: As I stated in my answer to the PQ referred to, we hold providers robustly to account for their performance. This includes monitoring their expenditure to ensure they prioritise actions to meet their obligations under the contract. Community Rehabilitation Companies are registered with Companies House and are required to disclose Director’s pay in their annual accounts.

Electronic Tagging

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 8 February 2018 to Question 126465, what estimate his Department made of the cost of providing the information sought.

Rory Stewart: The Electronic Monitoring service has always been delivered using a contracted infrastructure. My officials have estimated that it would take two members of staff at least one week to design a comparable electronic monitoring service and identify training and other support mechanisms necessary to deliver the service before calculating the cost. This would breach the £850 disproportionate cost grounds threshold

Capita

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 8 February 2018 to Question 126466, on Capita, on how many occasions his predecessor met Capita to discuss the issues raised by the Public Accounts Committee report on outsourced electronic monitoring.

Rory Stewart: There have been no meetings between the previous Secretary of State and Capita representatives to discuss the issues raised in the recently published Public Accounts Committee report. Contracts are managed by officials and not Ministers.Electronic monitoring is a vital tool in improving supervision in the community and supports offenders to reform and lead law abiding lives on release.My officials in the Ministry of Justice hold regular meetings with Capita staff involved in the delivery of the Electronic Monitoring service to hold them to account for delivery of the service. They have discussed with Capita the action being taken to address concerns raised by the Public Accounts Committee.

Ministry of Justice: Buildings

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what (a) building and (b) refurbishment projects his Department plans in the (i) current, (ii) next and (iii) subsequent financial year; and what the cost will be of each such project.

Rory Stewart: The Ministry of Justice’s plans for prison, court and probation reform projects and centrally funded major capital and resource maintenance projects were set out at a strategic level in the National Infrastructure and Construction Pipeline published on 6 December 2017. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-infrastructure-and-construction-pipeline-2017 Projects are subject to reprioritisation depending on the priorities of the estate and confirmed funding. Forecast cost information at individual project level is regarded as commercially sensitive and are subject to change during the procurement process.

Ministry of Justice: Procurement

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the cost has been of employing civil servants to undertake procurement in his Department in each financial year since 2010-11.

Rory Stewart: We have understood this question to ask how much is spent recruiting individuals into roles which undertake procurement activities. The information requested is not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Legal Aid Scheme

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many legal aid matter starts there were in each matter start category in each constituency in each of the last five years.

Lucy Frazer: The Legal Aid Agency’s data is not broken down by constituency, and can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.A geographic breakdown of completed legal aid work, including legal help matter completions (claims), by region and local authority area based on the location of providers’ offices, is available in the National Statistics on legal aid in England and Wales, published by the Ministry of Justice at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/legal-aid-statistics-january-to-march-2017

Young Offenders

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many hours people in each Young Offenders Institution spent in (a) work and (b) education on average in each year since 2010.

Dr Phillip Lee: Youth Custody Service (YCS) holds public YOI education contract data since 2015 when responsibility transferred from the Education Funding Agency (EFA) to the Youth Justice Board (YJB). Operational contract management of these contracts is now undertaken by the YCS. Table 1 : The average number of Classroom-based Learner Hours provided per Young Person per weekYoung Offender Institutions (YOI)20102011201220132014201520162017Cookham-----14.0914.7011.03Feltham-----13.9910.6511.61Werrington-----18.4317.1419.64Wetherby-----16.8712.6413.55All HMPPS YOI-----15.8513.7813.96 Notes:(1) For 2015 this information is for the period August to December.(2) This information is drawn from operational management information. Parc is the only privately run YOI and the contractual expectation is that young people spend 25 hours in education, including physical education, per week. Table 2: The number of hours expressed as an average per young person per week of taught education and vocational training delivered in the private YOI, in each calendar year for 2010 to 2017.Private YOI20102011201220132014201520162017Parc22.9725.2725.4523.2325.7923.5223.3624.49All Private YOI22.9725.2725.4523.2325.7923.5223.3624.49 Note:(3) This information is drawn from operational management information. We are committed to reforming youth custody in order to improve outcomes for children and young people, which includes expanding frontline staff capacity in public-sector YOIs by 20% - that’s 123 new recruits - and we will introduce a new youth justice specialist role. We have already started to make progress and currently over 100 frontline staff are enrolled on a new vocational youth justice foundation degree.

Criminal Injuries Compensation

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many claims for compensation were rejected by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority in each year since 2010-11; and for what reasons each of those claims was rejected.

Lucy Frazer: The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) publishes data about the number of claims rejected and the reasons why claims are rejected in its annual reports at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications?departments%5B%5D=criminal-injuries-compensation-authority&publication_type=corporate-reports The figures published in the annual reports show the number of times each rejection reason was used. For some applications there may have been more than one reason for rejection. This means that the total number of reasons for rejection is higher than the actual number of claims refused. The total number of rejected claims for the years specified is: Financial yearRejected cases2010/1127,1342011/1225,0662012/1324,4112013/1423,8032014/1520,0662015/1615,2432016/1712,411

Criminal Injuries Compensation: Appeals

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many applications for compensation rejected by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority were referred to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Appeals Panel in each year since 2010; and how many such applications were successful.

Lucy Frazer: The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate costs. This is because appeals against decisions of CICA to the First-tier Tribunal (Criminal Injuries Compensation) are not limited to applications that CICA has rejected. To answer the question would require a manual check of all appeals. However, information on the number of applications that proceed to the appeal stage and the number of those that are overturned can be found in CICA’s annual reports.

Ministry of Justice: Public Opinion

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 20 February 2017 to Question 127066, on Ministry of Justice: Public Opinion, what estimate his Department has made of the potential cost of collecting data on focus groups and opinion polling conducted by his Department.

Dr Phillip Lee: Information about how much money the Ministry of Justice has spent in respect of focus groups and opinion polling each year since 2010 is not available as this information is not specifically collected. The potential cost of drawing this information together is approximately £1,700 and over the disproportionate costs thresh-hold.

Immigration: Appeals

Mr Paul Sweeney: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average length of time was that it took to process an immigration appeal in the last twelve months; and what targets are set for processing and bringing to a conclusion such appeals.

Lucy Frazer: The average time taken to clear an immigration appeal in the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) between October 2016 and September 2017 was 57 weeks.HM Courts & Tribunals Service does not routinely publish targets for processing immigration appeals. Published data is only available up to September 2017.

Prisons: Restraint Techniques

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many use of force incidents have been recorded in each prison since 2010.

Rory Stewart: Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service require that all use of force in prisons must be rigorously reported and locally recorded. However, the data collated at the national level throughout all of the period specified is of unsatisfactory quality and consistency. Satisfactory nationally-collated data relating to the frequency of use of force in prisons is available for the period 2008/09 – 2011/12, and was published as part of the Equalities Annual Review (2011-2012). HMPPS are committed to ensuring that all use of force in prisons is lawful and reflects the highest standards. As part of our commitment to ensuring robust governance over the use of force we are working to identify ways to improve the quality, granularity and availability of use of force data locally and nationally.

Ministry of Justice: Contracts

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, on how many occasions his Department refused to approve a subcontractor proposed by Interserve in each year since 2010; what the reason given for each such refusal was; and what the name of each such proposed subcontracting company was.

Rory Stewart: The Ministry of Justice does not record this information centrally and therefore does not hold the information requested.

Ministry of Justice: Contracts

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, on how many occasions his Department refused to approve a subcontractor proposed by Amey in each year since 2010; what the reason given for each refusal was; and what the name of each proposed subcontracting company was.

Rory Stewart: The Ministry of Justice does not record this information centrally and therefore does not hold the information requested.

Attorney General

Immigrants: Detainees

Stuart C. McDonald: To ask the Attorney General,  what steps the CPS has taken as a result of the BBC Panorama programme, Undercover: Britain's Immigration Secrets of 4 September 2017.

Robert Buckland: Sussex Police have sought early investigative advice from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), South East Area, in respect of possible criminal offences. The CPS has received some documentation and had a meeting with the officer in charge of the investigation in February 2018. The police investigation is still ongoing and CPS will only be in a position to provide advice regarding charging or otherwise once all the papers are received.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Housing

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to his Department's explanatory memorandum to its Supplementary Estimate 2017-18, what assessment he has made of the effect on devolved powers on housing of surrendering £75m for devolution deals in 2017-18.

Jake Berry: This funding was earmarked to support devolution deals in England, by providing areas which agreed to establish mayoral combined authorities with a single pot of funding to invest in delivering economic growth. Six mayoral combined authorities had been fully established by the end of the financial year, with Sheffield City Region due to hold mayoral elections in 2018, and a deal announced on a “minded-to” basis with North of Tyne at Autumn Budget 2017.Where local areas had failed to reach a consensus to take forward devolution negotiations, or had not fully concluded the necessary agreements to transfer powers and budgets, some of this funding was no longer required in this financial year. Surrendering this funding has therefore not had an impact on housing.The same cannot be said of the £144 million of housing funding and a potential £122 million on regeneration that went unspent in his time as Housing Minister.

Local Government Finance

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department has issued instructions to local authorities to build up reserves.

Rishi Sunak: Councils are free to determine the level of reserves they hold and are accountable to their electorate for the decisions they make. They are required by statute to hold a level of unallocated reserves commensurate with sound financial risk management.No specific instructions have been issued to local authorities in relation to building up their reserves. Nor is there any national guidance on the minimum or maximum level of reserves, either as an absolute amount or as a percentage of the budget. To ensure prudent management, some authorities will maintain reserves at higher levels than others

Local Government: Training

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 15 January 2018 to Question 120654, on Local Government: Training, what direct funding his Department offers for training for (a) leaders of local authorities and (b) local authority cabinet members; and if he will make a statement.

Rishi Sunak: Through Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government grant funding, the Local Government Association (LGA) provides broad support to the local government sector, including training and support for members and officers, and policy briefings.This includes: one-to-one mentoring for elected Leaders and Cabinet Members by other member peers, elected members attending LGA Leadership Academy programmes, and corporate peer challenges.Corporate peer challenges involve a team of senior members and officers from other areas spending time in a council to review and challenge an aspect of its activity.

Ministry of Defence

Armed Forces: Corruption

Mr Roger Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, on how many occasions the Defence Council has concluded that conduct by (a) a member of the armed forced engaged in active service and (b) a civilian subject to service discipline which would otherwise be deemed to be a relevant bribery offence, was necessary under Section 13 of the Bribery Act.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: There are no recorded disciplines for Service personnel or a civilian subject to service discipline, that would have been deemed to be a relevant bribery offence under the Bribery Act 2010.

Boeing

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many defence contracts his Department has awarded to Boeing since December 2017; and what the value of each of those contracts was.

Guto Bebb: Holding answer received on 05 March 2018



A significant amount of Ministry of Defence (MOD) business with Boeing is conducted through the Foreign Military Sales process. In addition, MOD central records have not yet been updated with our most recent contract awards, including any contracts with Boeing that might have been signed in the last two months. We have, however, signed one significant contract directly with Boeing since December 2017, which will be announced shortly.

Defence: Procurement

Ged Killen: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the effect of the UK leaving the REACH chemical framework on the defence supply chain.

Guto Bebb: The Ministry of Defence is working closely with defence industry and other Government Departments to understand the opportunities and implications of EU exit for the defence sector, including REACH.

Ballistic Missile Defence: Radar

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to support the development of a new ballistic missile defence radar demonstrator.

Guto Bebb: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my hon. Friend the then Minister for Defence Procurement (Harriett Baldwin) on 10 July 2017 to Question 06506. This notes that the ground-based ballistic missile defence radar referred to will not be a demonstrator, as it will provide a fully operational capability. The information gathered from interested parties is now being considered to establish options, according to standard UK defence procurement practices.



2910 - Ballistic Missile Defence: Radar
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Defence Equipment: Bridges

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) bridges, (b) vehicles, (c) trestle sets and (d) pontoon sets his Department is planned to continue to operate as part of the Project TYRO plan to upgrade the British Army's BR90 bridging system.

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the number of (a) Close Support Bridges, (b) General Support Bridges and (c) Launch and Support vehicles in the British Army is planned to be reduced following the completion of Project TYRO.

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, which elements of the British Army's bridging capability fall under the remit of Project TYRO.

Guto Bebb: Project TYRO will deliver the future Close Support Bridging and General Support Bridging capability for the Army, replacing the current BR90 Bridging System.The project is currently in its assessment phase, which will determine the capability requirement and commercial options. Until completion of the assessment phase future numbers and configurations for the bridge systems cannot be confirmed.

Defence Equipment: Bridges

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, which (a) regular and (b) reserve units within the Corps of Royal Engineers operate the BR90 bridging system.

Mark Lancaster: The regiments that operate the BR90 bridging system are:21 Engineer Regiment22 Engineer Regiment26 Engineer Regiment32 Engineer Regiment35 Engineer Regiment36 Engineer Regiment

Defence Equipment: Bridges

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether plans to re-timetable or re-profile the Project TYRO replacement and upgrade of the British Army's BR90 bridging system are under consideration as part his Department's Modernising Defence Programme.

Guto Bebb: No decisions have yet been taken as a part of the Modernising Defence Programme.

Poland: Battle of Britain

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has received representations from the Government of Poland on displaying a Supermarine Spitfire in Poland to commemorate the Polish contribution to the Battle of Britain.

Mark Lancaster: The Ministry of Defence has not been approached by the Government of Poland in relation to displaying a Supermarine Spitfire in Poland.

Babcock International: Stirling

Stephen Kerr: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent discussions he has had with Babcock Defence Support Group on the future use of the Forthside estate in Stirling.

Stephen Kerr: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what discussions have taken place between his Department and Babcock DSG on (a) the future of that company's operations in Scotland and (b) the location of a mobile base of operation in Scotland.

Guto Bebb: The Ministry of Defence remains engaged with Babcock to understand its Defence Support Group plans, including the location of its future operations. As Babcock is a key supplier to the Department, the issue has been raised at regular meetings between senior officials and the company.

Japan: Joint Exercises

Nia Griffith: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2018 to Question 123796, how many personnel from the (a) Army, (b) Royal Navy and (c) Royal Air Force are planned to participate in joint exercises with Japan over the next two years.

Mark Lancaster: Personnel from HMS SUTHERLAND and HMS ARGYLL will also take part in joint exercises with the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force during their respective deployments to East Asia in 2018.Around 45 Army personnel will take part in a land-based exercise in Japan in October 2018 with elements of the Japanese Ground Self-Defense ForceThese exercises deliver on a 2017 commitment made by the UK and Japanese Prime Ministers to conduct joint training and exercises.

Radar

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, on what date his Department issued a request for information to industry in respect of a deployable long-range air defence radar for use overseas.

Guto Bebb: The request for information for the Deployable Long Range Air Defence Radar was issued to industry on 11 January 2018.

Armed Forces: Vehicles

Jeremy Lefroy: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will take steps to ensure all tyres for military vehicles are capable of being remanufactured.

Guto Bebb: Tyres procured for use on Ministry of Defence vehicles must comply with UK legislation and National Industry Standards; as such, they must be suitable for 'remanufacture'.

Boeing

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what contracts his Department has agreed with Boeing in the last 12 months.

Guto Bebb: Holding answer received on 06 March 2018



Central records indicate that the Ministry of Defence awarded two contracts to Boeing in the last 12 months, and two to its subsidiary, Jeppeson UK. Three of the contracts are set out below with the remaining one to be announced shortly: TitleSupplierRegulated take off tables and obstruction data for UK defenceJEPPESEN U.K. LIMITEDProcurement of navigation equipment for C17JEPPESEN U.K. LIMITEDProvision of maintenance for the Chinook auxiliary power unit and the Titan auxiliary power unit mobile test facilityBOEING DEFENCE U K LTD

Israel: Security

Nigel Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of security co operation between the UK and Israel.

Mark Lancaster: Defence cooperation between the UK and Israel is strong and supports the UK's role in coalition success against Daesh and promotes regional stability.

USA: Armed Forces

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the governance arrangements are for United States Visiting Force bases in the UK.

Mark Lancaster: Bases in the UK are made available to the United States Visiting Forces under the terms of the NATO Status of Forces Agreement of 1951. The Ministry of Defence retains ownership of all bases but the US Visiting Forces are responsible for administering their own day-to-day activities.

Frigates

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will place in the Library a copy of the combined pre-qualification questionnaire and invitation to negotiate (ITN) to industry for the Type 31e general purpose frigate competitive design phase (CDP).

Guto Bebb: I am withholding the documents requested as their release, prior to the award of the contracts for the Competitive Design Phase, would prejudice commercial interests. The Ministry of Defence will publish copies of the relevant documentation after contract award, in line with the Government's transparency agenda.

Ministry of Defence: Internet

James Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many and what proportion of his Department’s cloud-hosting contracts have been awarded to (a) hyperscale cloud providers and (b) UK SMEs; and what the value was of those contracts in each of the last three years.

Guto Bebb: It will take some time to gather the information required to answer the hon. Member's question. I will write to the hon. Member shortly.

Department for Work and Pensions

European Social Fund

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when her Department plans to publish its mid-term review of the European Social Fund Operational Programme.

Alok Sharma: England’s Managing Authority (MA) for the European Social Fund (ESF) has conducted a ‘mid-term review’ of the ESF England Operational Programme (OP) to ensure it is fit for purpose going forward. The review notably focused on strategic objectives, lessons learned, and maximising value for money. The MA is now implementing these changes in conjunction with the European Commission (EC) through a two-stage approach. Any amended elements of the revised OP are subject to the Commission's approval under Article 96(10) of Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 and we are unable to publish amendments until we have received the formal adoption notification. The first phase of the review was concluded in December 2017 through the European Commission’s Implementing Decision C(2017) 8861. We will be finalising the second phase of the review over the coming months and anticipate publishing the refreshed OP (reflecting both stages) in the spring, subject to EC approval timelines. ESF is a devolved matter for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Funeral Payments

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claims for the Social Fund Funeral Expenses Payment Scheme her Department (a) received and (b) accepted in (i) the West Midlands and (ii) England in 2016-17.

Kit Malthouse: Table 1 below gives the number of applications received and number of awards for Funeral Expenses Payments in England and in the West Midlands government office region in 2016/17. Table 1: applications received and awards for Funeral Expense Payments in England and West Midlands, 2016/17  EnglandWest MidlandsApplications received35,9004,400Awards21,2002,600Source: Policy, Budget and Management Information System Notes: The number of applications and awards are rounded to the nearest 100.The applications figures are based on applications received by DWP, not applications processed. Some applications may have been withdrawn before a decision was made.The award figures include awards made after review, reconsideration or appeal following an initial refusal.These figures do not include applications which were processed clerically and have not been entered on to the Social Fund Computer System.The number of awards made in each year is not equal to the number of people who made applications or received awards in that year. An individual may make multiple applications in a given time period.

State Retirement Pensions: Females

Mr Roger Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 23 February 2018 to Question 128081, for what reason complaints from women born in the 1950s who are affected by changes in state pension age have not yet been allocated to an investigation case manager; what steps his Department is taking to ensure that those complaints are (a) allocated to an investigation case manager and (b) resolved in a timely manner; and how long the Department estimates it will take to (i) allocate, (ii) investigate and (iii) resolve those complaints.

Kit Malthouse: The Independent Case Examiner’s Office allocates complaints from women born in the 1950s affected by changes to State Pension age, to a dedicated team of investigation case managers, based on the date the complaint was accepted for examination. In the case of this group of complaints, investigations have to date been concluded within an average of 9.75 weeks of the investigation commencing, against a target of 20 weeks. We cannot provide reliable estimates of how long it will take to allocate and conclude investigations into those cases that are currently awaiting investigation.

Mortgages: Interest Payments

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department took to inform recipients of Support for Mortgage Interest of the changes from benefit to loan occurring on 5 April 2018.

Kit Malthouse: A managed information provision process began in July 2017 to inform all existing recipients of Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) benefit of the new scheme. Claimants are given information about how the SMI loan will work, about alternatives to the loan and organisations that may offer further information and support. This is followed up by telephone calls to explain the information and answer any questions. A leaflet containing Frequently Asked Questions is issued to support this informed discussion. Where a claimant expresses an interest in taking up the offer of an SMI loan they will be sent a loan agreement and charge form to complete and return. They also receive detailed guidance on how to complete these documents.

Mortgages: Interest Payments

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much time his Department deemed adequate to provide sufficient notice to those in receipt of Support for Mortgage Interest of the impending changes scheduled for 5 April 2018.

Kit Malthouse: The Department determines that 6 weeks is a sufficient time period for claimants to make a decision whether to take up the offer of an SMI loan. The Department ask that the loan agreement and charge form are returned soon as reasonably possible to enable them to be processed efficiently. A reminder is sent out after six weeks if the documents have not been received. Claimants may change their mind whether to take or decline a loan at any time.

Universal Credit: Disability

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information his Department holds on the number of universal credit recipients in receipt of disability benefit with non-dependents living at their home receiving housing cost contribution deductions for non-dependents.

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what percentage of initial decisions to award a housing cost contribution deduction for non-dependents to those in receipt of universal credit was overturned in the most recent year for which figures are available.

Alok Sharma: The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Jobcentre Plus: Training

Debbie Abrahams: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when her Department most recently revised its guidance to jobcentre staff on managing customer declarations of intention to attempt suicide or self-harm.

Alok Sharma: DWP reviewed and updated its national guidance to staff on managing customer declarations of intention to attempt suicide or self-harm in November 2016. This was part of a programme of regular reviews we undertake to ensure guidance is meeting the need for staff and customers. The guidance requires jobcentres to hold local plans that identify the approach to take, local contacts and support and to review and revise these local plans regularly to ensure information is accurate and appropriate. A further regular review is currently taking place to ensure our policies and guidance remain current. Any changes identified as a result will be applied to guidance later this year.

Employment: Health

Stephen Kerr: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department plans to take steps to encourage companies to improve the health and well-being of their employees.

Sarah Newton: As set out in the recent Command Paper, Improving Lives: the Future of Work, Health and Disability, we want to work in partnership with employers to help them draw fully on the talents of disabled people and people with long-term health conditions and build workplaces that promote the health and wellbeing of their workforce. In turn, this can help businesses prosper and grow by attracting and retaining valuable skilled employees and increasing the productivity of the workforce. We are taking a number of steps to do this, including improving advice and support for employers and exploring how to achieve the right balance of incentives and expectations. Thriving at Work: The Stevenson/Farmer Review of mental health and employers sets out a compelling business case for employer action to support staff’s mental health and wellbeing and offers support and advice for businesses. This includes a recommended set of mental health core standards for all employers to adopt, which we will support and encourage employers to take up.

Independent Assessment Services: Complaints

Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 14 February 2018 to Question 126937, what target her Department sets for the completion of Stage 2 complaints relating to the Independent Assessment Service.

Sarah Newton: The Department works closely with PIP assessment providers to ensure that complaints are responded to in a timely manner. We expect Independent Assessment Services to acknowledge all complaints within 2 working days and 90% of complaints should be responded to within 20 working days.

Poverty: Cornwall

Scott Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of people in (a) North Cornwall, and (b) Cornwall, were living below the poverty line in each year since 2015.

Kit Malthouse: National statistics on the number of people in relative low income are set out in the annual "Households Below Average Income" publication. The number and proportion of people in relative low income is not available at local authority or constituency level in this publication because the survey sample sizes are too small to support the production of robust estimates at this geography. 3-year estimates for the South West of the proportion and number of people in relative low income are available in Table 3.17ts and Table 3.18ts in the file “3_population_timeseries_region” from this link: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/599136/hbai-2015-2016-supporting-ods-files.zip

Department for Work and Pensions: Business Interests

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, which members of her Department's board are responsible for ensuring the proper application of the business appointment rules for former Ministers and senior civil servants.

Kit Malthouse: Applications from former Ministers are considered by the Independent Advisory Committee on Business Appointments directly. For applications from former civil servants; Departmental Audit and Risk Committees, which are chaired by Departmental Non-Executive Directors, will, at regular intervals, monitor compliance issues relating to the Business Appointment Rules.

Mortgages: Yorkshire and the Humber

Mary Creagh: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 1 March 2018 to Question 129578, how many households in Yorkshire and the Humber his Department has written to regarding the change in Support for Mortgage Interest from a benefit to a loan.

Kit Malthouse: Information on the number of Support for Mortgage Interest claimants in Yorkshire and the Humber is published here: http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2018-02-19/128199/.The Department has put in place a programme to contact all SMI claimants and that programme is nearing completion.

Universal Credit

Ruth George: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the effect of the 20 per cent deduction to repay rent arrears from the universal credit personal allowance, on personal debt and income.

Ruth George: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department plans to (a) review the level of deduction from the universal credit standard allowance to repay rent arrears and (b) introduce flexibility within the system for landlords to request deductions at a lower level.

Alok Sharma: The Department consulted about deductions for rent arrears in 2014. Following this the Government provided for an increased amount to be deducted for rent arrears in order to protect claimants from eviction and to protect landlords’ income streams when all other options for recovery have failed. Increasing the deduction rate to repay rent arrears helps claimants pay off what they owe more quickly, and reduce the chances of eviction. This is an important step in helping claimants clear their debts and to prepare for, find and progress in work. The rent arrears deduction rate is set at between 10% - 20% and is made up of two parts: a minimum deduction of 10% of the claimant’s standard allowance and up to a further 10% depending on individual circumstances, such as which other deductions may be being applied. There are no plans to review the level of deductions that can be made. Landlords are however free to make their own arrangements with tenants for the repayment of rent arrears.

Universal Credit: Overpayments

Ruth George: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many universal credit claimants are re-paying benefit overpayments; what the (a) mean and (b) median value is of those overpayments; and what the average period is for those benefit payments to be recovered in the most recent period for which figures are available.

Alok Sharma: The Department has a duty to protect public funds and has an obligation to ensure that in accordance with social security legislation, any overpayment of benefit resulting from a claimants error or fraud is recovered. There were 40,521 Universal Credit claimants who had a deduction from their Universal Credit as a recovery against a benefit overpayment (which related to their legacy benefits) within the last 31 days (in January 2018 the Universal Credit caseload was 730,000). The mean value of the outstanding balances is £1,082.50 and the median figure is £332.55. The information to provide the average recovery period will often fluctuate over time dependent on a claimant’s particular circumstances.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Farmers: Hedges and Ditches

Mr Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending the period during which farmers are permitted to cut hedges; and if he will make a statement.

George Eustice: The hedge-cutting ban protects farmland birds during the important nesting and rearing period. In England the bird breeding and rearing season is primarily March to August inclusive. The evidence for this comes from the British Trust for Ornithology’s Nest Record Scheme and shows that farmland birds such as the Blackbird, Common Whitethroat, Goldfinch, Bullfinch and Yellowhammer rear and have late broods during August – not only the Wood Pigeon as some have suggested. We have discussed the impact of the non-cutting period with agricultural and environmental organisations and introduced a derogation that enables hedges to be cut in a field during August if oil seed rape or temporary grass is sown in that field. We continue to allow hedges to be cut during six months of each year.

Plants: Conservation

Sir Mark Hendrick: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many species of plants the UK has provided for the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in each of the last five years.

George Eustice: In the last five years the UK has provided the Svalbard Global Seed Vault with seeds from one plant species - Nightshade (from the Solanum genus of flowering plants). Through our Millennium Seed bank at Kew, Defra works closely with the Global Crop Diversity Trust who manage the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.

Common Agricultural Policy

Tom Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what reasons the Government's command paper, Health and Harmony: the future for food, farming and the environment in a Green Brexit, Cm. 9577, published on 27 February 2018, does not reference the role of agricultural policy in supporting public health and tackling diet-related disease.

George Eustice: The food we eat affects our health and well-being and our connectedness to the world around us. In our consultation we recognise that leaving the EU will allow us to design a future agriculture policy which promotes environmental enhancement, supports profitable food production and contributes to a healthier society.In the consultation paper we propose a range of ideas to increase productivity, exploit new technology and research and improve animal health and welfare - all of which support better environmental and public health outcomes.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Internet

James Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of his Department’s cloud-hosting contracts have been awarded to (a) hyperscale cloud providers and (b) UK SMEs; and what the value of those contracts was in each of the last three years.

George Eustice: a) Core Defra currently has two direct contracts with ‘public cloud-hosting’ providers: Amazon Web Services (AWS) from January 2017 Microsoft Azure from July 2017 via Defra’s Microsoft Enterprise Licence Agreement The expenditure is as follows: AWS - £35,561.96 (2017/2018) Microsoft Azure – Zero spend to date b) None

Government Departments: Food

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many Departments are compliant with (a) Government Buying Standards and (b) the balanced scorecard approach for the procurement of food and drink.

George Eustice: The balanced scorecard (BSC) approach becomes mandatory for central Government departments in July 2018. The procurement of food and catering services for central Government departments is currently measured via The Greening Government Commitment, which measures the actions that UK Government departments and their agencies will take to reduce their impacts on the environment in the period 2016 to 2020. The 2015/2016 annual report shows that 13 out of 22 Government departments are compliant with Government Buying Standards. Defra is currently working with Crown Commercial Services to implement a new quarterly evaluation system to measure the adoption of the BSC in Government departments. This will begin in summer 2018 after the BSC has been mandated by Crown Commercial Services in the Facilities Management Framework.

Local Government: Food

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what information his Department holds on the number of local authorities which use (a) Government Buying Standards and (b) the balanced scorecard for the public procurement of food and drink.

George Eustice: We do not hold information regarding Government Buying Standards for Food or the Balanced Scorecard for wider public sector bodies with delegated funding.

Local Government: Food

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support local authorities to use the (a) Government Buying Standards and (b) balanced scorecards in the procurement of food and drink.

George Eustice: The Plan for Public Procurement of Food and Catering Services provides tools, including the balanced scorecard (BSC), to help contracting parties balance a range of criteria beneficial to the consumer, the environment and producers. Use of the toolkit is mandated for central Government and strongly encouraged for wider public sector bodies who have delegated funding from central Government. There is a range of activity going on to support local authorities to use the Government Buying Standards (GBS) and the BSC, with highlights as below: The Government Food Procurement Implementation Taskforce was formed on 7 December 2017. The Taskforce is a sector led body made up of trade bodies, procurers, food producers and processors, distributors, caterers and other interested parties. It has agreed to focus on driving up the use of the BSC and the GB Food Marketplace, which is a recently launched online service that includes a self-assessment questionnaire to help suppliers evaluate how they measure up against the GBS and the BSC. There are currently three Taskforce working groups looking at communications, measurement and analysis, and supply chain issues including opening up new ways to market for small and medium sized businesses. The School Food Plan, published in 2013, aims to significantly increase the number of children eating good food in schools. It sets standards for caterers to meet, meaning that pupils will have access to better quality, more nutritious food. Defra officials formed part of the implementation Project Board, providing advice on how Defra’s Food Marketplace could help school caterers source high quality, locally produced supplies. Bath and North East Somerset Council has implemented the BSC in their food procurement practices, and have set up a Dynamic Food Procurement National Advisory Board to provide a conduit for public sector bodies to increase the amount of local and fresh food that is procured. Defra is part of this group.

Public Sector: Food

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if the Government will ensure support for British horticulture in the balanced scorecard approach for public procurement of food and drink.

George Eustice: The Plan for Public Procurement aims to open up the Government market to more small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and local producers by providing a level playing field on which UK producers, including horticultural businesses, can compete. The balanced scorecard (BSC) approach to food procurement encourages caterers and wholesalers to source products that open up the supply chain to SMEs, such as letting supply contracts in smaller lots. It also encourages businesses which supply locally sourced, seasonal produce. These measures will make it easier for horticultural growers to participate in contracts to supply food to central Government and other participating public sector bodies. Furthermore, the GB Food Marketplace allows producers and suppliers to quickly certify themselves against the key BSC measurements, including healthy, local, seasonal food and SMEs. This helps ensure there is a consistent buying approach across the public sector that supports locally sourced, seasonal produce.

Members: Correspondence

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to respond to the letter of 25 January 2018 from the hon. Member for Leeds West on the Leeds Flood Alleviation Scheme.

Dr Thérèse Coffey: I replied to the hon. Member for Leeds West on Friday 2 March. I apologise for the delay in replying.

Home Office

Home Office: Sexual Offences

Catherine McKinnell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department plans to implement any of the recommendations of the report, Joint Serious Case Review Concerning Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adults with Needs for Care and Support in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, published by the Newcastle Safeguarding Children Board and Newcastle Safeguarding Adults Board.

Victoria Atkins: Child sexual exploitation is abhorrent and the crimes perpetrated in Newcastle have had a devastating impact on the lives of the victims. The Government acknowledges the seriousness of the issues raised in this serious case review and is committed to improving the national response to tackling sexual exploitation.We have already taken significant action to tackle this issue. In February 2017, the Government published its Tackling Child Sexual Exploitation: Progress Report and announced a £40m package of measures to protect children and young people from sexual abuse, exploitation and trafficking, and to crack down on offenders.This included £7.5m for a new, ground-breaking Centre of Expertise that will identify, generate, and share high quality evidence of what works to prevent and tackle child sexual abuse and exploitation. The recommendations of the review cover a wide range of issues, which we will consider carefully in the context of this existing programme of work.

Cybercrime

Adam Afriyie: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps her Department has taken to tackle cyber crime.

Mr Ben Wallace: Cyber security, including cyber crime, is a top priority threat to national security. This is why the National Cyber Security Strategy 2016-2021 is supported by £1.9billion of transformational investment. We have boosted the capabilities of the National Crime Agency’s National Cyber Crime Unit by increasing their ability to investigate the most serious cyber crime, and we are continuing to invest in the cyber teams within each of the Regional Organised Crime Units across England and Wales.We have also established the National Cyber Security Centre which manages national cyber security incidents, carries out real-time threat analysis and provides tailored sectoral advice. We have invested in regional cyber crime prevention coordinators, who engage with SME’s and the public to provide bespoke cyber security advice based on the latest technical understanding from the National Cyber Security Centre.Driving up cyber knowledge and expertise at the local policing level is also extremely important. The College of Policing provides a range of courses for police officers and staff on cyber crime. The College are also working on behalf of the Home Office to create the Cyber Digital Career Pathways project. This project will create a Cyber Digital Investigation Profession across all of law enforcement, providing a career pathway and professional certification for Cyber Digital Investigation Professionals.The Home Office delivers the Government’s Cyber Aware campaign which encourages the public and small businesses to adopt simple behaviours which will help protect them against the majority of cyber threats. Most recent activity to educate the public on the cyber threat and how they can protect themselves includes the #OneReset campaign to encourage greater use of a strong and separate password for primary email accounts, and, launching on 1 March 2018, a new research report entitled “A Call to Action: The Cyber Aware Perception Gap”, which outlines the need for, and benefit of, a collaborative effort to increase the adoption of cyber secure behaviour.

Slavery

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps are being taken by the Government to encourage businesses with a total annual turnover of under £36 million to produce a slavery and human trafficking statement for each financial year of that organisation.

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many businesses have failed to comply with the requirement under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 that every organisation carrying on a business in the UK with a total annual turnover of £36m produce a slavery and human trafficking statement.

Victoria Atkins: As a result of the world-leading provisions in the Modern Slavery Act 2015, we have seen thousands of transparency statements published and businesses are now more focused on this issue than ever before. The legislation was designed to harness pressure from civil society and we are pleased that NGOs are using company statements to hold businesses to account, including contacting businesses that have not yet published statements.The Government does not monitor compliance with section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. Two independent repository websites have been set up to collate these statements. The Government is not involved in running or funding either website. Both websites make different estimates of the total number of statements published so far. The latest estimates can be accessed online at http://www.modernslaveryregistry.org/ and https://tiscreport.org/The Government has strengthened guidance for businesses and recently wrote to over 10,000 businesses that may be required to publish statements reminding them of their obligations and providing useful resources. We expect this activity will further increase the number of statements published.In October the Government also launched a new ‘Business Against Slavery Forum’. This aims to establish a new partnership between Government and business to accelerate progress in tackling modern slavery. It will focus on sharing best practice and building new initiatives to tackle modern slavery, including improving business engagement with the Modern Slavery Act

Passports: Lost Property

Mr David Lammy: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many passports have been reported lost or mislaid by her Department and its agencies during immigration applications in each of the last five years.

Caroline Nokes: The specific data requested is not published by the Home Office.

Cannabis

Mr Roger Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will assess the health and economic benefits of legalising cannabis for medical use.

Victoria Atkins: The World Health Organization’s Expert Committee on Drug Dependence has committed to reviewing the scheduling of cannabis under the United Nation’s 1961 Convention. This is due to consider the therapeutic use, as well as dependence and the potential to abuse constituent parts of cannabis. This is due in 2019 and we will await the outcome of this report before considering the next steps.

Sexual Offences: Newcastle Upon Tyne

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the Government plans to respond to the joint serious case review into sexual exploitation in Newcastle.

Victoria Atkins: Child sexual exploitation is abhorrent and the crimes perpetrated in Newcastle have had a devastating impact on the lives of the victims. The Government acknowledges the seriousness of the issues raised in this serious case review and is committed to improving the national response to tackling sexual exploitation.We have already taken significant action to tackle this issue. In February 2017, the Government published its Tackling Child Sexual Exploitation: Progress Report and announced a £40m package of measures to protect children and young people from sexual abuse, exploitation and trafficking, and to crack down on offenders.This included £7.5m for a new, ground-breaking Centre of Expertise that will identify, generate, and share high quality evidence of what works to prevent and tackle child sexual abuse and exploitation. The recommendations of the review cover a wide range of issues, which we will consider carefully in the context of this existing programme of work.

Political Activities: Personal Records

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Deptartment, what the Government's policy is on the destruction of security service files on the political activities of private individuals.

Mr Ben Wallace: It has been the policy of successive Governments neither to confirm nor deny matters relating to the activities of the security and intelligence services.

Human Trafficking: Victim Support Schemes

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Office, how many cases were referred to the Trafficking Victim Support Scheme in each year since 2010; and which organisation made each such referral.

Victoria Atkins: The National Crime Agency publishes data on the number of referrals made to the National Referral Mechanism, the system for identifying and support victims of modern slavery.http://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/publications/national-referral-mechanism-statisticsThe UK annual report on modern slavery contains figures on the number of victims that were supported through the Government funded Adult Victim Care and Coordination Contract.https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/652366/2017_uk_annual_report_on_modern_slavery.pdf

Refugees: Calais

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions she has had with her counterpart in the French Government on unaccompanied children in Calais vulnerable to (a) human trafficking and (b) modern slavery; and if she will make a statement.

Victoria Atkins: The UK and France regularly discuss unaccompanied asylum seeking children and their vulnerabilities, including the risks of modern slavery and human trafficking at both official and ministerial level.The UK and France signed a Treaty on 19 January at the UK-France summit, which agreed a ‘whole of route’ joint package of co-operation on migration, aimed at further strengthening our shared border and reducing the number of illegal migrants at northern French ports, as well as reducing illegal migration and tackling modern slavery and human trafficking.As part of the Treaty, we announced a number of specific measures in respect of unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children. This includes the allocation of a £3.6 million development fund, as part of the UK’s overall £45.5m funding commitment, to identify projects which support claims through the Dublin process and ensure that those with no prospect of transferring to the UK are informed of their options.

Police: Reserves

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has issued instructions to police authorities to build up financial reserves.

Mr Nick Hurd: The Home Office does not mandate specific levels of police financial reserves as it is a matter for Police and Crime Commissioners to determine appropriate levels of reserves required to support their financial plans. As at March 2017 PCCs held usable resource reserves of over £1.6bn. This is public money and the public are entitled to more information around police plans for reserves and how those plans will support more effective policing. The Home Office has therefore published guidance to PCCs requiring them to publish their reserves strategies in plain English, with a clear justification for each reserve held. This is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-financial-reserves

Firearms: Licensing

Mr Gavin Shuker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the number of shotgun and firearms certificates that have been granted where the applicant's doctor has not participated in the licensing process in the last three years.

Mr Gavin Shuker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on the number of GPs in each police constabulary area who are not participating in the firearms licensing process.

Mr Nick Hurd: In accordance with arrangements introduced in 2016, the police write to the GPs of those who apply for a firearms licence to seek relevant information regarding the applicant’s health before the licence is issued. We do not collect statistics on the number of certificates that have been granted without the applicant’s GP having participated in the process. However, reports from police forces and firearms licence applicants indicate that the participation rates amongst GPs are variable. We have been in discussions with the police, medical bodies and shooting representatives about how greater consistency can be achieved.

Police: Stun Guns

Leo Docherty: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of equipping more police officers with Taser non-lethal weapons, and if she will make a statement.

Mr Nick Hurd: We are committed to giving the police the necessary tools to do their job and TASER®, a form of conducted energy device (CED), provides officers with an important less-lethal, tactical option when facing potentially physically violent situations.While its use must be in line with the Home Secretary’s authorisation of the device, the deployment of TASER® is an operational matter for Chief Officers. It is for them to determine the number of devices and specially trained officers based on their force assessment of threat and risk.

Asylum

Stuart C. McDonald: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to change IT systems to allow information on the (a) average length of time for a decision on asylum support applications and (b) length of stay in initial accommodation for people applying for s95 non-emergency asylum support to be published.

Caroline Nokes: The Home Office monitors closely the performance of asylum support application decision making and has a range of targets for processing support applications depending on the nature of the application being made. However information on processing times and the length of stay in initial accommodation is not recorded in a format suitable for publication and there are no plans to publish such statistics at this time.We are working with the National Asylum Stakeholder Forum to consider what more information could be made publicly available once the new IT system for asylum support casework has been fully implemented later this year.

Immigration: EU Nationals

Dr Philippa Whitford: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many non-UK EU nationals have applied for permanent residency since 23 June 2016.

Dr Philippa Whitford: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many non-UK EU nationals have been granted permanent residency since 23 June 2016.

Dr Philippa Whitford: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many non-UK EU nationals have been refused permanent residency since 23 June 2016.

Dr Philippa Whitford: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications submitted by non-UK EU nationals for permanent residency that have been received since 23 June 2016 are still being processed.

Dr Philippa Whitford: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the (a) average and (b) longest waiting time for completion of the process for a non-UK EU national to gain permanent residency has been since 23 June 2016.

Caroline Nokes: Information on outcomes of applications for documents certifying permanent residence for European Union (EU) nationals are published quarterly in the Immigration Statistics. These include data for documents issued, refusals and applications deemed invalid and hence rejected. The most recent edition (Immigration Statistics October to December 2017, European Economic Area data table ee_02_q,) is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-october-to-december-2017/list-of-tables#european-economic-area-eeaInformation on the total number of European casework cases awaiting a decision and performance against Service Standards is published in the Migration Transparency data at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/in-country-migration-data-february-2018

Home Office: Internet

James Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the value of cloud-hosting contracts with (a) Amazon Web Services, (b) Oracle Fusion, (c) Microsoft Azure, (d) Vodafone, (e) DXC, (f) SCC and (g) UKCloud was in financial years (i) 2012-2013, (ii) 2013-2014, (iii) 2014-2015, (iv) 2015-2016 and (v) 2016-2017.

Victoria Atkins: The Home Office publishes details of contracts and that may include the key performance indicators used for contract performance management purposes via Contracts Finder https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder

Customs

Mr Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what checks are carried out on goods arriving into the UK from outside the EU at the point of entry.

Caroline Nokes: Border Force carries out documentary and physical checks on people and goods entering and leaving the UK in accordance with UK and EU legislation.These checks include checking licences or permits for restricted goods, anti-smuggling checks looking for illicit items, checks to ensure duty and import VAT are paid, and checks to ensure wider customs rules are complied with.

Scotland Office

Broadband: Scotland

Ged Killen: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what recent discussions he has had with the Scottish Government on improving digital connectivity; and what recent discussions he has had with that Government on improving broadband (a) connections and (b) speeds to new housing developments.

David Mundell: I have regular discussions with the Scottish Government to discuss a wide range of issues, including connectivity across Scotland. I also have regular discussions with DCMS regarding connectivity issues in Scotland. The agreement brokered by DCMS between the Home Builders Federation (HBF) and Openreach offers full fibre broadband to new builds at no cost to the developer when threshold conditions have been met. Virgin and GTC have similar agreements with the HBF. DCMS’s Barrier Busting Task Force are in the process of measuring the impact of these agreements and will report on them once that work is complete.

Universal Credit: Scotland

Danielle Rowley: What assessment he has made of the effect on low-income families of the roll-out of universal credit in Scotland.

Stuart Andrew: Universal Credit is transforming lives across the country. Research shows that UC claimants spend more time searching for work and applying for work than those on previous benefits. There are now over 100,000 fewer workless households in Scotland than 7 year ago.

HM Treasury

Treasury: Internet

James Gray: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the volume of UK citizens’ data held by companies (a) supplying cloud services to his Department and (b) contracted to deliver cloud services on behalf of his Department which is subject to information requests from US Government bodies.

Robert Jenrick: Our estimate is that no UK citizens’ data held through cloud services is subject to information requests from US Government bodies. Our records of our personal data holdings, as well procurement review process, are currently under review as part of the forthcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Financial Services: Regulation

Adam Afriyie: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of RegTech's potential effect on reducing the administrative burden of regulation.

John Glen: RegTech has significant potential to reduce the administrative burden of regulation. The Financial Conduct Authority is already aware of the opportunities associated with RegTech, and have run a series of ‘tech sprints’ intended to address specific industry challenges.

Stamp Duty Land Tax: Tax Allowances

Peter Dowd: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people received Stamp Duty Land Tax relief for relocation of employment in (a) 2015-16, (b) 2016-17 and (c) 2017-18.

Peter Dowd: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people received relief on Stamp Duty Land Tax for transfers involving public bodies in (a) 2015-16, (b) 2016-17 and (c) 2017-18.

Peter Dowd: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people received relief on Stamp Duty Land Tax for zero carbon homes in (a) 2015-16, (b) 2016-17 and (c) 2017-18.

Peter Dowd: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many bodies established for national purposes received relief on acquisition in (a) 2015-16, (b) 2016-17 and (c) 2017-18.

Peter Dowd: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people received relief for incorporation of limited liability partnership in (a) 2015-16, (b) 2016-17 and (c) 2017-18.

Mel Stride: The table below shows the number of land and property transactions which claimed relief from Stamp Duty Land Tax for each of the requested categories. A single transaction can be made by one or more individuals, or one or more non-natural persons.Stamp Duty Land Tax reliefs relating to zero carbon homes ceased in September 2012. Figures are rounded to the nearest 100; “-” denotes that there are fewer than 50 transactions claiming reliefs. Estimates of the number of transactions claiming reliefs from SDLTa) 2015-16b) 2016-17c) April 2017 to October 2017Relocation of Employment300200100Transfers involving Public Bodies200200100Zero Carbon Homes---Acquisition for national purposes---Incorporation of Limited Liability Partnerships100100100

Research: Tax Allowances

Peter Dowd: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people received relief on payments to relevant scientific research associations in (a) 2015-16, (b) 2016-17 and (c) 2017-18.

Mel Stride: HMRC publishes information on the cost of tax relief on payments to relevant scientific research associations here:https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/minor-tax-expenditures-and-structural-reliefs The estimates for this tax relief are based on the Corporation Tax data of relevant scientific research associations. According to the latest information available, 2016/17, the number of scientific research associations for the purposes of CT was fewer than 100. This number has been relatively stable in recent years.

Revenue and Customs: Telford

Lucy Allan: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans HM Revenue and Customs has for the future of its staff working at Abbey House and Parkside Court in Telford.

Mel Stride: Telford will be a Specialist Site location for HMRC that will include Digital Technology and Corporate Service functions. Over the past two years we have redeployed some of our IT specialists previously contracted to ASPIRE into HMRC Digital Technology Services. We are committed to invest in specialist skills and training for all of our people. HMRC’s Chief Digital Information Officer business area continues to recruit into Plaza (a nearby location), making opportunities available where possible to those HMRC staff in Abbey and Parkside and current workforce plans shows for this to continue. In addition Telford are also working to strengthen relationships with HMRC Birmingham as part of the West Midlands network, for example current initiatives include mental health networks.

Save As You Earn

Sir Michael Fallon: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of deferring the upcoming increase in the contributions holiday for SAYE schemes from six to 12 months to allow more time for the share plan industry to undertake (a) system development and (b) regression testing.

Sir Michael Fallon: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his planned increase to contributions holidays for SAYE schemes will apply to those (a) on maternity leave, (b) on shared parental leave, (c) on adoption leave and (d) who miss payment contributions.

Sir Michael Fallon: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the planned increase to the contributions holiday for SAYE schemes will apply to new SAYE contracts only or also cover pre-existing SAYE contracts.

Mel Stride: The government announced at Autumn Budget that it would extend the Save As You Earn (SAYE) contributions holiday from 6 to 12 months for those on maternity and parental leave from 6 April 2018. After receiving representations from the share plan industry, the government is delaying the implementation of this change until 1 September 2018 to allow for software changes and testing. The government will, from the same date, extend the SAYE contributions holiday to 12 months for all SAYE plans. This change will extend the benefit to all SAYE participants, including those with pre-existing contracts.

Children: Day Care

Tracy Brabin: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether Atos or any other contractor has been found to be have failed on any part of the contract related to providing the website services which generate eligibility codes for (a) tax-free childcare and (b) 30 hours of funded childcare.

Elizabeth Truss: It is not the Government’s usual practice to comment on contractual matters between departments and their contactors since they may be commercially sensitive.

Department for International Development

Developing Countries: Health Services

Stuart C. McDonald: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to the Government response to the Fifth Report of the International Development Committee, Session 2014-15, HC 816, whether the Department has developed its position paper on health systems strengthening.

Alistair Burt: As recognised by the Fifth Report of the International Development Committee, DFID is a world-leader in health systems strengthening. A good health system delivers quality services to all people when and where they need them, addresses the social determinants of health such as nutrition and sanitation, and can prevent and respond to shocks such as disease outbreaks. DFID is in the final stages of developing a position paper on how we will work with developing countries to create strong and resilient health systems.

Cabinet Office

Government Departments: Conditions of Employment

Anneliese Dodds: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of assurance mechanisms operated by government bodies on the employment practices of contracted-out staff.

Oliver Dowden: Where civil servants are working for a non civil service organisation, this is done under a secondment agreement and not as contracting out. In such situations, a secondment agreement is normally put in place between the two organisations setting out the responsibilities of both towards the secondee during the period of the secondment. Through this, the employing department is able to satisfy itself that the host organisation is aware of and able to discharge the relevant employment responsibilities. As set out in section 10.3 of the Civil Service Management Code, civil servants who are on secondment remain subject to their normal terms and conditions, including in relation to conduct, discipline and disclosure of information. Where a secondee has any concerns about the practices in the host organisation, they can raise that with their employing department, who is able to take action and, if necessary, end the secondment.

Government Departments: ICT

Jon Trickett: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to Exiting Major IT Contracts: Guidance for Departments, published in November 2017, what information his Department plans to collect to monitor Departments’ take up of that guidance.

Oliver Dowden: There will be no specific information collected from departments to monitor departments’ take up, as this is a guidance document and has been drafted with the aim of departments learning from each other’s experiences when exiting their major IT contracts by providing case studies and making reference to other useful material, including policy.

Cabinet Office: Electric Vehicles

Mary Creagh: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many vehicles in his Department's fleet are (a) electric and (b) ultra-low emission.

Oliver Dowden: The Cabinet Office uses the Government Car Service for vehicle provision. A list of cars provided to Departments by the Government Car Service was included in the return for the Department for Transport. I refer my Hon. Friend to the answer given to PQ122480 on 22nd January.

Carillion

John Mann: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment has been made of the risk of contagion from the collapse of Carillion plc to other private companies and contracts in the public and private sector.

Oliver Dowden: The Government is committed to maintaining a healthy supplier market and work closely with our key suppliers. We constantly monitor our largest suppliers. From the point of liquidation, through the Official Receiver, we are continuing to pay for services received from suppliers and subcontractors on public sector contracts. If any subcontractor experiences any difficulties, we would encourage them to talk in the first place to the Insolvency Service.

Carillion

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, for what reason the position of crown representative responsible for Carillion services was vacant for three months following the retirement of Julie Scattergood.

Oliver Dowden: This Government recognises the importance of managing relationships with Strategic Suppliers and their performance on a cross-Government basis, and has developed a range of strategies to do this, including the use of Crown Representatives. The role of Crown Representative for Carillion was vacant for three months between August and November 2017 due to normal staff turnover. This also provided opportunity to bring in a new Crown Representative who had the necessary experience of company restructuring. During this period, the Crown representative responsibilities were covered by the Government’s Chief Commercial officer and the Cabinet Office Director of Markets and Suppliers.

Parliamentary Contributory Pension Fund

Ian Murray: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what discussions he has had with trustees of the Parliamentary Contributory Pension Fund on disinvestment from fossil fuels.

Oliver Dowden: I have had no such discussions. Investment decisions within the Parliamentary Contributory Pension Fund are a matter for the Trustees who receive professional advice regarding decisions on the management of scheme assets. Details of the schemes investments are set out each year in a published Annual Review.

Avanton

Jon Trickett: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments has taken to monitor compliance by the right hon. Member for Sevenoaks of conditions it gave with regard to his appointment at Avanton Ltd.

Chloe Smith: An error has been identified in the written answer given on 06 March 2018.The correct answer should have been:

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.The Cabinet Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.


UKSA Response 
(PDF Document, 67.16 KB)

Chloe Smith: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.The Cabinet Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.


UKSA Response 
(PDF Document, 67.16 KB)

Cabinet Office: Internet

James Gray: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many and what proportion of his Department’s cloud-hosting contracts have been awarded to (a) hyperscale cloud providers and (b) UK SMEs; and what the value of those contracts was in each of the last three years.

Oliver Dowden: In answer to part (a), Cabinet Office does not hold the requested information.In answer to part (b) UK SMEs have been awarded the following cloud hosting contracts by value over the last 3 calendar years (2015 to 2017 inclusive): Cabinet Office cloud-hosting buying with UK SMEs only(based on data that has been matched with Crown Commercial Service spend data) Hosting only   RoundedActual2015 £1,702,6712016 £3,703,4962017 £4,326,741Total cloud hosting£9.7M£9,732,908   2015 £496,6672016 £1,853,3882017 £1,420,935SME cloud hosting£3.8M£3,770,990   2015 29.2%2016 50.0%2017 32.8%% SME39%38.7%

Small Businesses: Employment

Lucy Allan: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many and what proportion of people in the (a) Telford constituency and (b) UK were employed by small and medium-sized enterprises in each year since 2010.

Chloe Smith: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.



UKSA Response 
(PDF Document, 132.35 KB)

Public Sector: Digital Technology

Adam Afriyie: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he has taken to make improve the use of digital technology in the public sector.

Oliver Dowden: The United Kingdom is a recognised world leader in public sector digital innovation. The Government Digital Service (GDS) leads on the digital transformation in government, providing common solutions to problems that government service teams have to tackle repeatedly.GDS provides standards, guidance and best practice to help government to build services that work for everyone. GDS works with departments to provide the right technology to help the public sector deliver great services, through technology that meets user needs; makes cross-government collaboration easier; costs less; and will help civil servants to work more flexibly and efficiently.The Government Transformation Strategy was published in February 2017. It sets out a vision for transforming the way government operates and delivers services in the digital age and GDS’ role in driving this change. It was developed in conjunction with other government departments and its objectives include business transformation; increasing skills and capability across government; developing better tools, processes and governance; data; and developing more shared platforms such as GOV.UK Notify.

Housing: Construction

Jon Trickett: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many homes have been built on land released through the One Public Estate programme since 2013.

Oliver Dowden: The One Public Estate programme has recently begun to collect data on homes that have been built on land released through the programme. A summary of the current data we hold is set out below.Financial YearLand released for homes  (housing units)Of which homes delivered (housing units)2014/15792912015/1692522016/178521602017/188110Total2,547303 The One Public Estate programme is assisting local OPE partnerships to record and evidence where homes have been delivered. As partnerships improve their data gathering process we expect to see an increase in data across all years. As the planning process and construction pipeline to build homes is not immediate upon the release of land, there is an inevitable time lag between the two data sets above.

Suicide

Catherine McKinnell: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department holds information on the number of people that died by suicide who were experiencing a financial crisis at the time of their death.

Chloe Smith: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.



UKSA Response
(PDF Document, 67 KB)

Public Inquiries

Layla Moran: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, on how many occasions a Government Minister has overruled the views of an Inquiry Chair received under the Government’s requirement to consult the Chair of an Inquiry under section 14(3) of the Public Inquiries Act 2005 to cancel a Public Inquiry established under that Act before it completes.

Mr David Lidington: This information is not held centrally.

Department for International Trade

Department for International Trade: Fair Trade Initiative

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what proportion of his Department's spend on day-to-day goods has comprised fair trade products since it was established.

Greg Hands: Holding answer received on 05 March 2018



The Department for International Trade is fully committed to ethical procurement, but does not hold information at the level of detail required to answer the question.

Trade Agreements

Nigel Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many mutual recognition agreements he plans to negotiation with third countries after the UK leaves the EU.

Greg Hands: We are talking to a number of countries about future trading options, including Mutual Recognition Agreements and Free Trade Agreements. We are also using instruments such as Joint Trade Reviews, collaborative in-depth analyses into the mutual trading relationship between the UK and partner countries, to look for areas we can improve our respective bilateral trading and investment relationships.

Trade Agreements: Manufacturing Industries

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, which non-EU countries his Department has identified as best for future trade deals in the automotive sector.

Greg Hands: We are working with a number of other countries to explore the best ways to develop our current trade and investment relationships and ensure that Britain becomes a global leader in free trade once we leave the EU. Automotive is an important sector for the UK and a trade success story with exports worth £40bn – 13.3% of the UK’s total manufacturing exports. It is crucially important to understand the priorities for the sector, as we develop a future UK trade policy and the Department for International Trade officials maintain a dialogue with the industry, working closely with officials in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Department for Exiting the European Union and other government departments.

Trade Agreements

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, with which countries he and his officials have held discussions with about future trading options after the UK leaves the EU.

Greg Hands: We are working with a wide range of countries to explore the best ways to develop our current trade and investment relationships and ensure that Britain becomes a global leader in free trade once we leave the EU. The Government has established working groups and high-level dialogues with a range of key trade partners to explore the mechanisms for liberalising trade. These range from mutual recognition agreements and the sort of outcome-based equivalence approach, recently advanced by the governor of the Bank of England, to being key members of multilateral agreements. We will consider multi-country alliances of the like-minded, right down to bilateral arrangements, using all the advantages available from our diplomatic network, to the system of Prime Ministerial Trade Envoys.

Motor Vehicles: Exports

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what steps his Department is taking to promote UK automotive exports to the international market.

Graham Stuart: The Department for International Trade (DIT) is actively engaged in promoting UK automotive exports globally, making full use of our teams in the UK and at posts overseas including in our current priority markets: the USA, China, Germany, Central/Eastern Europe, Mexico and India. We help companies win export business through participation in overseas missions and events, including through the Tradeshow Access Programme. Recent examples include the Prime Minister’s mission to China where we supported a number of UK automotive companies, and a low-carbon vehicle mission to the USA and Mexico. We promote UK automotive industry excellence through the Great international trade campaign. We also provide competitive financial support through UK Export Finance, helping exporters and tier-one suppliers to trade internationally. Global demand for UK automotive products is strong and this Department is helping to ensure our automotive businesses take full advantage.

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Horse Racing: Betting

Adam Afriyie: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the effect of the April 2017 reforms to the Horserace Betting Levy on (a) horse-racing and (b) the public purse.

Tracey Crouch: In April 2017, the Government implemented reforms to the Horserace Betting Levy which made it a requirement for offshore operators to pay the Levy for the first time. The Horserace Betting Levy Board, which collects the Levy, estimates that the reformed Levy will generate c.£85m in 2017/18. This would represent an increase of c.£20m compared to receipts from bookmakers in 2016/17 under the old system. The actual Levy yield for 2017/18 will only be known after the end of the financial year. Increased receipts from the Levy have already allowed an additional £9.7m of investment in grassroots prize money, contributing to record prize money of £160m in 2018. The Levy is collected from bookmakers and distributed in line with the statutory purposes in support of horseracing, and so has no direct effect on the public purse.

Women and Equalities

Equal Pay

Alison McGovern: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, how many staff employed by the Equality and Human Rights Commission are working on the gender pay gap.

Victoria Atkins: The Equality and Human Rights Commission is an independent public body and decisions on staffing requirements are operational matters for the Commission itself. I have therefore asked the Commission’s Chief Executive Officer to write to the Hon member with the information requested. I will place a copy of the letter in the libraries of both Houses.